“Ah, Nellie,” he said, “you were afraid I had bolted.”
“I was not,” she answered firmly; “only I did not want to lock up the house, until you were in.”
“Nellie,” he said again, “you were most mortally afraid in the depths of that hard little heart of yours that I had run away.”
“I don’t know whether I am most afraid you will run away, or disgrace us by staying. Where have you been, Bob?”
Vickers looked down at her and felt inclined to refuse her the information, but seeing possibilities in telling her, he almost instantly answered:
“I have been most safely engaged in a visit to Miss Overton.”
“Louisa Overton? Oh, Bob, how could you?”
“But why not? I had supposed it one of the very most respectable——”
“You know that is not what I meant.”
“Perhaps you will tell me what you do mean.”