"See," said he, "how ridiculous I'd feel trying to say sentimental things to you.

Besides, it's not easy to fall in love with a girl one has known since she was born, and with whom he's always been on terms of brotherly, quite unsentimental intimacy." Rita gave him a look that put this suggestion out of countenance by setting him to thrilling again.

He felt that her look was artful, was deliberate, but he could not help responding to it.

He began to be a little afraid of her, a little nervous about her; but he managed to say indifferently, "And why haven't YOU fallen in love with ME ?" She smiled.

"It isn't proper for a well-brought-up girl to love until she is loved, is it ?" Her expression gave Grant a faint suggestion of a chill of apprehension lest she should be about to take advantage of their friendship by making a dead set for him.