I
|HE paid his visit of digestion as soon as, with any sort of
countenance, he could--he paid it the next afternoon; and when he had
gone, Pontycroft accused Ruth of having “flirted outrageously” with him.
Ruth, her head high, repudiated the charge with a great show of
resentment. “Flirted? I was civil to him because he is a friend of
yours. If you call that flirting, I shall know how to treat him the next
time we meet.”
“Brava!” applauded Ponty, gently clapping his hands. Then he knotted
their bony fingers round his knees, leaned back lazily, and surveyed her
with laughing eyes. “Beauty angered, Innocence righteously indignant!
You draw yourself up to the full height of your commanding figure in
quite the classic style; your glances flash like fierce Belinda's, when
she flew upon the Baron; and I never saw anything so haughty as the
elevated perk of your pretty little nosebud. But