He won't say a word.

Lucky no one saw us as we came up." "It doesn't matter much, does it ?" said Frank.
There was a pause.
"I say, Frank, when will you tell me--" "I'll answer any questions after dinner to-night.

I simply can't talk now." Dinner was a little difficult that night.
Mrs.Kirkby had been subjected to a long lecture from her son during the half hour in which she ought to have been dressing, in order to have it firmly implanted in her mind that Frank--whom she had known from a boy--was simply and solely in the middle of a walking-tour all by himself.

She understood the situation perfectly in a minute and a half--( she was a very shrewd woman who did not say much)--but Jack was not content.

He hovered about her room, fingering photographs and silver-handled brushes, explaining over and over again how important it was that Frank should be made to feel at his case, and that Fanny and Jill--( who were just old enough to come to dinner in white high-necked frocks that came down to their very slender ankles, and thick pig-tails down their backs)--must not be allowed to bother him.