"I mean the hand--not the kiss," he said smiling.
"You really are sophisticated," she told him. "Only fancy if you had
reversed those nouns!"
"I know," he said; "but I've kissed hands before. You see, I'm more
talented than you think."
"Don't be silly," she said smiling. "I really am beginning to think very
well of you. You don't want me to cease to, do you?"
"Why do women always say 'Don't be silly'?" he queried. "I wish I could
find one who wanted to be very original, and so said, 'Do be silly', just
for a change."
"Dear me, if women were to beg men to be silly what would happen?" Mrs.
Rosscott exclaimed. "The majority are so very foolish without any special
egging on."
"But it is so dreadfully time-worn--that one phrase."
"Oh, if it comes to originality," she answered, "men are not original,
either. Whenever they lie down in the shade, they always begin to talk
nonsense. You reflect a bit and see if that isn't invariably so."
"But nonsense is such fun to talk in the shade," he said, spreading her
fingers out upon his own broad palm. "So many things are so next to
heavenly in the shade."
"You ought not to hold my hand."
"I know it."
"I am astonished that you do not remember your Aunt Mary's teaching you
better."
"She never forbade my holding your hand."
"Suppose anyone should come suddenly down the path?"
"They would see us and turn and go back."
"To tell everyone--"
"What?"
"A lie."
Jack laughed, folded her hand hard in his, and drew himself into a sitting
posture beside her knee.
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