"A filthy day," said Sir Hugh, "I can't bear to think that this is what you have been doing, all alone."
"I don't mind it, I have the girls, on three mornings, you know."
"You mean that you don't mind it because you are so used to it?"
She had regained some of her composure:—for one thing he was beside her, no longer blocking her way back into the room. "I like solitude, you know," she was able to smile.
"Really like it?"
"Sometimes."
"Better than the company of some people, you mean?"
"Yes."
"But not better than mine," he smiled back. "Come, do encourage me, and say that you are glad to see me."
In her joy the bewilderment was growing, but she said that, of course, she was glad to see him.