Janie nodded rather nervously. After a pause of a full half-minute, Harry Tristram rose without a word and began to walk off; it was left for Mina to join him in a hurried little run.
"Oh, wait for me, anyhow," she cried, with a laugh.
They walked on some way in silence.
"You're not very conversational, Mr Tristram, I suppose you're angry with me?"
He turned and looked at her. Presently he began to smile, even more slowly, it seemed, than usual.
"I must see that my poor uncle has fair play—what do you call it?—a fair show—mustn't I?"
"Oh, that's what you meant, Madame Zabriska? It wasn't the pleasure of my company?"
"Do you know, I think you rather exaggerate the pleasure—no, not the pleasure, I mean the honor—of your company? You were looking as if you couldn't understand how anybody could want to talk to uncle when you were there. But he's better-looking than you are, and much more amusing."
"I don't set up for a beauty or a wit either," Harry observed, not at all put out by the Imp's premeditated candor.