"Edith doesn't care a rap about me, and you know it.

And she knows I don't care, and--and if anybody had anything to say, it would be your Mr.
Terence Weaver." "_My_ Mr.Terence Weaver ?" She was looking down at me sidewise, in a perfectly maddening way.

"You are really very--er--funny, Mr.Carleton." "Well," I rapped out between my teeth, "I don't _feel_ funny.

I feel--" "No?
But, really, you know, you act that way." I saw she was getting all the best of it--and, in my opinion, that would kill what little chance a man might have with a girl.

I set deliberately about breaking through that crust of composure, if I did nothing more.
"That depends on the view-point," I grinned.