“From a man you knew in Paris, mademoiselle, Mr. Ralph Donnington. He has charged me to explain——”
“I don’t wish to hear that one, thank you,” she broke in.
“But he is absolutely determined that you shall hear it.”
“Shall?” she cried warmly, throwing back her head with a lovely poise of indignation and looking straight into my eyes.
“Yes, shall,” I replied firmly. “I have travelled over a thousand miles to deliver it.”
“I am not interested in mining concessions, Mr. Donnington,” she cried scornfully, thinking to wither me.
“Nor am I.”
Her intense surprise at this put all her indignation to flight, and left nothing in her eyes but bewildered curiosity.
“Nor am I,” I repeated with a smile.
“But——”