"You can be _so_ nice, Wayne--when you want to be."

"'Um--hum. A none too subtle way of calling a man a brute."

"I presume there are times when you can't help being a brute, Wayne; but
I do hope to-night will not be one of them."

"Why it must be something very horrible indeed, that you must approach
with all this flaunting of diplomacy."

"It is something a long way from horrible, I assure you," she replied
with dignity. "Ann will be down for dinner to-night, Wayne."

He leaned back and devoted himself to his cigarette with maddening
deliberation. Then he smiled. "Through sleeping?"

"Wayne--I'm in earnest. Please don't get yourself into a hateful mood!"

He laughed in real amusement at sight of Katie's puckered face. "I am
conscious that feminine wiles are being exercised upon me. I
wonder--why?"

"Because I am so anxious you should like Ann, Wayne, and--be nice to
her."

"Why?" Again it was that probing, provoking why.

"Because of what she means to me, I suppose."

Something in her voice made him look at her differently. "And what does