'All right, then. I shall go and ask him to come and stay at the hotel, for at least a fortnight. I shall go and ask him now. You're inconsistent, Edith. At one moment you seem to like the man, but as soon as I want to make a pleasant arrangement you're off it. So like a woman, isn't it, Vincy?' He laughed.
'Isn't it?' answered Vincy.
'Well, look here, I'm going right down to Jermyn Street purposely to tell him. I'll be back to dinner; do stop, Vincy.'
Bruce was even more anxious than he used to be always to have a third person present whenever possible.
He walked through the hot July streets with that feeling of flatness —of the want of a mild excitement apart from his own home. He saw Aylmer and persuaded him to come.
While he was there a rather pretty pale girl, with rough red hair, was announced. Aylmer introduced Miss Argles.
'I only came for a minute, to bring back those books, Mr Ross,' she said shyly. 'I can't stop.'
'Oh, thank you so much,' said Aylmer. 'Won't you have tea?'
'No, nothing. I must go at once. I only brought you in the books myself to show you they were safe.'
She gave a slightly coquettish glance at Aylmer, a half-observant glance at Bruce, sighed heavily and went away. She was dressed in green serge, with a turned-down collar of black lace. She wore black suède gloves, a gold bangle and a smart and pretty hat, the hat Vincy pretended had been given to him by Cissie Cavanack, his entirely imaginary cousin, and which he'd really bought for her in Bond Street.