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.
But she speedily tranquilized him by saying: "No, my reason was
that I didn't want to spoil my one friendship. Even a business
person craves the luxury of a friend--and marrying has been my
business," this with a slight curl of her pretty, somewhat cruel
mouth. "To be quite frank, I gave you up as a possibility years
ago. I saw I wasn't your style. Your tastes in women are rather--
coarse."

Arkwright flushed. "I do like 'em a bit noisy and silly," he
admitted. "That sort is so--so gemuthlich, as the Germans say."

"Who's the man you delivered over to old Patsy Raymond? I see he's
still fast to her."