"Worth, I'm not at all sure that it is the best of form for a grown-up
young gentleman of six summers to be audibly estimating the fathomless
depths of a young woman's eyes. Note well the word audibly, Worthie."

"They go farther down than yours, Aunt Kate."

"'Um--yes; another remark better left with the inaudible."

"It looks--it looks as if there was such a lot of cries in them!
o--h--one's coming now!"

"Worth," she called sharply, "come here. You mustn't talk to Miss Ann
about cries, dear. When you talk about cries it brings the cries, and
when you talk about laughs the laughs come, and Miss Ann is so pretty
when she laughs."

"Miss Ann is pretty all the time," announced gallant Worth. "She has a
mouth like--a mouth like--She has a mouth like--"

"Yes dear, I understand. When they say 'She has a mouth like--a mouth
like--' I know just what kind of mouth they mean."

"But how do you know, Aunt Kate? I didn't say what kind, did I?"

"No; but as years and wisdom and guile descend upon you, you will learn
that sometimes the surest way of making one's self clear is not to say
what one means."

"But I don't see--"