“You would see me walking on Beach Path day by day.”
“I never call it Beach Path.”
“May it now be called—Helena’s?”
“Or will you stay and lunch with me to-day? And you might even pay homage again—say to-morrow—or—or some day in the week.”
“Lunch, most certainly. That commits me to nothing. Homage, Marchesa, is quite another matter.”
“Your chivalry is turning to bargaining, Lord Lynborough.”
“It was never anything else,” he answered. “Homage is rendered in payment—that’s why one says ‘Whereas.’ ” His keen eager eyes of hazel raised once more the flood of subdued crimson in her face. “For every recognition of a right of mine, I will pay you homage according to the form prescribed for St John Baptist’s Feast.”
“Of what other rights do you ask recognition?”
“There might be the right of welcoming you at Scarsmoor to-morrow?”
She made him a little curtsey. “It is accorded—on the prescribed terms, my lord.”