Page:In a Steamer Chair and Other Stories.djvu/61

Rh "I presume," he said again, "that you think me very impertinent?"

"Well, frankly, I do."

Morris gazed out at the sea, and Miss Earle opened the book which she had brought with her, and began to read. After a while her companion said:

"I think that you are a little too harsh with me, Miss Earle."

The young lady placed her finger between the leaves of the book and closed it, looking up at him with a frank, calm expression in her dark eyes, but said nothing.

"You see, it's like this. I said to you a little while since that I seem to have known you before. Now, I'll tell you what I was thinking of when you met me this morning. I was thinking what a curious thing it would be if I had been acquainted with you some time during my past life, and had forgotten you, while you had remembered me."

"That was very flattering to me," said the young lady. "I don't wonder you laughed."

"That is why I did not wish to tell you what I had been thinking of&mdash;just for fear that you would put a wrong construction on it&mdash;as you have done. But now you can't say anything much harsher to me than you have said, and so I tell you frankly just what