"Elsa, don't! I can't bear it!"

"Betty! What's the matter?"

Betty smiled again, but painfully.

"It's stupid of me. I'm just jealous, that's all. I haven't got a
Marvin, you see. You have."

"Well, there are plenty who would like to be your Marvin."

Betty's face grew cold.

"There are plenty who would like to be Benjamin Scobell's son-in-law,"
she said.

"Betty!" Elsa's voice was serious. "We've been friends for a good long
time, so you'll let me say something, won't you? I think you're getting
just the least bit hard. Now turn and rend me," she added
good-humoredly.

"I'm not going to rend you," said Betty. "You're perfectly right. I am
getting hard. How can I help it? Do you know how many men have asked me
to marry them since I saw you last? Five."

"Betty!"

"And not one of them cared the slightest bit about me."