"Yes," said he, "a long time."
Millie rang the bell and ordered tea to be brought.
"You have not changed," said she.
"Nor you."
Millie had spoken with a noticeable distance in her manner; and she had not given him her hand. With her back towards the light she had allowed very little of her expression to be visible to her visitor. When tea was brought in, however, she sat between the fireplace and the window, and the light fell upon her. Callon sat opposite to her.
"At last I know that I am at home again," he said, with a smile. Then he leaned forward and lowered his voice, although there was no third person in the room. He knew the value of such tricks. "I have looked forward during these eighteen months so very much to seeing you again."
Millie's face coloured, but it was with anger rather than pleasure. There was a hard look upon her face; her eyes blamed him.
"Yet you went away without a word to me," she said. "You did not come to see me before you went, you never hinted you were going."
"You thought it unkind?"
"It was unkind," said Millie.