"Do I want it so badly, Miss Smith?"
"Yes. You're a weak-kneed man."
"Oh, I say! Look here, you must help me."
"Perhaps I will, if Mr. Bannister is not too engrossing."
"Now you're trying to draw me."
"Was I? And yet you looked pleased. Perhaps you think it a compliment."
"Isn't it one? It shows you think it worth while to——"
"It shows nothing of the kind," said Tora decisively.
Thus, for one reason or another, from one direction and another, there was converging on Littlehill a number of visitors. If your neighbor excites curiosity, it is a dull imagination that finds no plausible reason for satisfying it. Probably there was more in common than at first sight appeared between Mr. Delane's sense of duty, the Mayor's idea of official courtesy, Colonel Smith's contempt for narrowness of mind, Sir Harry Fulmer's care for the interests of the hunt, and Dr. Roberts' frank and undisguised eagerness to see and speak with Dale Bannister face to face.