"But why not? Are you in a hurry? You've plenty of time before five o'clock--heaps!"
"I'd prefer not to come," she insisted, in an abashed and diffident voice.
"But what's up?" he demanded, stepping back to the pavement, and glancing directly into her eyes.
She blushed more and more, dropping her eyelids.
"I don't want to be talked about too much!" she muttered, mortified. Her inference was unmistakable. The whole of her mind seemed now to be occupied with an enormous grievance which she somehow had against the world in general. Her very soul, too, was bursting with this grievance.
"Talked about? But who--"
"Never mind! I know! I've been told!" she interrupted him.
"Oh! I see!" He was now understanding the cause of her trouble in Sarah Gailey's bedroom.
"Now look here!" He went on. "I've just got to have a few words with you. You come across the road, please." He was imperious.
She raised her glance for a timid moment to his face, and saw to her intense astonishment that he also was blushing. Never before had she seen him blush.