"I didn't mean to be complimentary. What six-foot man with the world before him wants or needs the unction of compliments, Aunt Hope, Mr. Barrett?"
"Not this pilgrim," said Barrett, trying to be at ease, but feeling a strange smallness and inadequacy, for all his six feet, in this strange, out-spoken girl's eyes.
"And there's Uncle Hal, striding up and down the porch like a tiger in a cage," said Alma, nodding toward the door through which the sound of footfalls came as Nearing walked back and forth. "He's waiting to have a talk with you; I know the symptoms."
