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 "Then I wish"—he paused and laughed musingly—"I wish you weren't a woman, but a boy, so that you could go with me."

At this her look of fatigue deepened a little. "It is curious," she said. "When a man becomes interested in these platonic excursions, he always wishes that the lady were a boy; he never wishes to be a girl. I fear I should be a 'boy' a little mature for you, my dear."

"I believe you often deliberately try to make me feel idiotically young," he returned with some annoyance. "Why do you"

"But you see our journey would be very improper if you weren't. It is one thing for me to travel with my son and his young friend; but quite another thing for me to travel with a gentleman and use my son only as a chaperon. I am much more conventional than you suspect. You see, you must be young—or I shall have to stop the car and get out, as I threatened to yesterday."

"You're mocking me again. Sometimes I have a feeling that from the very beginning you've done nothing else. Is it true?"

"No," she said, and without complicating her reply by any explanation, she changed the subject. "Look