"Simply because she never gives me the slightest reason to think that
she does."
Jeff rubbed his nose thoughtfully.
"That's one too many for me."
"Don't you know that a woman always judges another woman by the thoughts
she suppresses?"
"That's nonsense."
"No, it isn't. I won't have you say that what I think is nonsense."
She turned her head toward him and looked down into his eyes.
"Are you sure you never cared for Rita? Not a little?"
"Sure."
"It was the Forbidden Way, Jeff. Do you like this way--_our_
way--better?"
He held her closer in his arms and that reply seemed adequate. She
asked him no more questions until some moments later, and she asked him
that one because she always liked the way he answered it.
A sudden loud rasping of the dining-room hangings on their brass rod,
and Camilla sprang up hurriedly. She even had time to go to the mantel
mirror and rearrange the disorder of her hair before the butler came in
to announce dinner.
He was a well-trained servant.