He swung round indolently from the view he had been contemplating, and faced Malster.
"No thanks, old chap," he said, "I'd rather not, thank you."
"Well, you don't mind Leonetta coming, do you?" Denis persisted, growing a trifle overanxious and heated.
"Not in the least, of course," the young nobleman replied and turned his head again in the direction of the landscape.
"Come on, Leo!" Denis repeated, with just a shade of command in his voice, while Vanessa, Agatha, and Guy looked on spellbound.
"No, I'd rather not, really Denis, thanks!" she said. "We were just on such an interesting subject. Can't you go after tea?"
"No, I'm afraid not," said Denis, his face flushing slightly with vexation.
"Well, then, leave me out of it, for once, will you?" Leonetta pleaded. "You know I should have loved to come. But I've got something I must finish with Lord Henry."
Denis Malster turned round, hot-eared and savage. "All right," he muttered. "I only thought you'd like it, that's all." And the four moved off in the direction of the woods, Denis walking with his head thrown more than usually back in the style that men commonly adopt when they are withdrawing from a humiliating interview. It is as if they were trying, like a drinking hen, to straighten their throats, in order the better to swallow the insult they have just received.
"I'm afraid that young man will not forgive me," said Lord Henry, when the party were out of earshot.