“And you needed doing good?” The straw-coloured hair was covered with a woollen scarf tied under the chin, but she held her head back to look at him as if she were wearing a hat that shaded her eyes.
“Evidently.” On the whole, he decided, she looked a good deal less attractive than she had looked in her dressing-room. The fur coat was shapeless, and the scarf did not suit her. “Since we are talking about trains,” he added, “what happened to your second-class compartment?”
She frowned with a smile at the corners of her mouth. “This way is so much less expensive. Did I say that I was travelling by train?”
Graham flushed. “No, of course not.” He realised that he was being rather rude. “In any case, I am delighted to see you again so soon. I have been wondering what I should do if I found that the Hotel des Belges was closed.”
She looked at him archly. “Ah! You were really going to telephone me, then?”
“Of course. It was understood, wasn’t it?”
She discarded the arch look and replaced it with a pout. “I do not think that you are sincere after all. Tell me truthfully why you are on this boat.”
She began to walk along the deck. He could do nothing but fall in step beside her.
“You don’t believe me?”
She lifted her shoulders elaborately. “You need not tell me if you do not wish to. I am not inquisitive.”