“But what am I to do? Oh, it’s nonsense! I shall come. I shall say I belong to you.”
I rang the bell. “Show this lady out, Thomas, at once.”
She laughed, bowed, and went. Evidently a most impudent hussy. I finished my business, drove to Liverpool Street, and established myself in a first-class smoking carriage. I was alone, and settled myself for a comfortable cigar. I was rudely interrupted. Just as the train was starting, the door opened—and that odious young woman jumped in.
“There! I nearly missed you!” she said.
“I can hold no communication with you,” said I severely; “you are a disgrace to your—er—sex.”
“It’s all right. I’ve wired to the colonel.”
“You’ve wired to my friend Colonel Gunton?”
“Yes, I didn’t want to surprise them. I said you would bring a friend with you. It’s all right, Mr. Miller.”
“I don’t know who you are or what you are; but the Guntons are respectable people, and I am a respectable man, and——”