"Lily pretended he hadn't spoken--that he wasn't even there, for that matter--but the moment the door closed behind him Velvet burst out in uproarious laughter. "If this don't beat anything I've ever seen!" she cried between yelps of mirth. Lily relived the incident in her mind and reddened accordingly. "He wouldn't really have struck me," she insisted. "He wouldn't have dared." Velvet's guffaws became giggles. "His hand was about this far from your bottom when I stepped through the door," she said, showing an inch of space between her thumb and index finger. "Yes, sir, if I'd been a second later, he'd have walloped you one." "I don't want to talk about it," Lily said. "I don't even want to think about that man."