"Not at all!" he answered eagerly.
"But perhaps you wished to stay and meet Mr. Ellis?"
"Not for anything!" he averred.
Then she looked at him soberly. "What do you think of him?" She posed him, for polite vagueness was his desire, and he could not find the words.
"He is——" he hesitated, "very—er, pleasant, of course. Not my—kind, perhaps."
"And you really do not like him," she stated, so simply and confidently that in all innocence he answered "Yes," and then could have bitten his tongue off.
"Neither do I," she acknowledged.
And so those two took the same important step which Judith and Ellis had already taken—of showing true feeling to each other, and breaking rules thereby. For Beth, while not reserved, chose her confidants carefully, after long trial; and Pease's habit had been never to acknowledge personal feeling against any one, least of all a business rival.
"Judith has encouraged him before," said Beth. "People talked of her when she met him; they will do so the more now that she has asked him here. Not that she will care for that, Mr. Pease, but I shall not enjoy it."
"Of course you will not," he agreed.