"Your indebtedness, if there be one, does not deprive you of the
liberty to speak to me as you will. You could not say anything
unjust without asking my forgiveness, and when you do that you
more than pay the debt. It is worth a great deal to me to hear
you say that you owe something to me, for I am only too glad to
be your creditor. If there is a debt, you shall never pay it; it
is too pleasant an account to be settled with 'you're welcome.'
If you insist that you owe much to me, I shall refuse to cancel
the debt, and allow it to draw interest forever."

"What a financier!" she cried. "That jest yeas worthy of a
courtier's deepest flattery. Let me say that I am proud to owe
my gratitude to you. You will not permit it to grow less."

"That was either irony or the prettiest speech a woman ever
uttered," he said, warmly. "I also am curious about something.
You were reading over my shoulder in the observation car--"
"I was not!" she exclaimed, indignantly. "How did you know
that?" she inconsistently went on.

"You forget the mirror in the opposite side of the car."

"Ach, now I am offended."

"With a poor old mirror? For shame! Yet, in the name of our
American glass industry, I ask your forgiveness. It shall not
happen again. You will admit that you were trying to read over
my shoulder. Thanks for that immutable nod. Well, I am curious
to know what you were so eager to read."