That's my trouble in a nutshell." "Great heavens, child!" Merefleet exclaimed, with an involuntary start.
"Don't talk like that!" "Why not ?" she asked innocently.

"Is it wrong ?" "It isn't literal truth, you know," he answered gravely.

"You will not persuade me that it is." "I'm no judge then," she said, with a note of recklessness in her voice.
"You have your cousin," Merefleet pointed out, feeling that he was on uncertain ground, yet unaccountably anxious to prove it.

"You are not utterly alone while he is with you." She uttered a shrill little laugh.

"Why," she said, "I believe you think I'm in love with Bert." Merefleet was silent.
"I'm not, you know," she said, after a momentary pause.