"Fairplains, yes! Oh, if only Daddy had been alive!"
"Yes, I know," he assented promptly, "please don't spare me! If I hadn't missed the panther——"
"I'm not quite so malicious as you imagine," she interrupted, "and you need not be so bitter—for you know as well as I do, how Daddy adored Fairplains."
"Pray accept my apologies," he said coolly, "I was not aware that you had modified your opinions. I wished to speak to you,—and here is my golden opportunity! You see, by most shocking bad luck, we happen to find ourselves in the same set! Your chaperon, Mrs. De Wolfe, belongs to my part of the world; she knew me in pinafores, so I am afraid we shall often knock up against one another."
"I suppose so," asserted Nancy, without raising her eyes.
"We may even find ourselves staying in the same house, and this would be a bit awkward; for if we were dead cuts, it might excite remark! However, this preposterous position, won't last long; I shall be returning to India." He paused for a moment and then added, with a smile, "Ah! I see you look relieved!"
"Do I? I did not know,—I rather wish I was going back too!"
"What, tired of the gay world already?"
To this she made no answer.
"Well, Nancy, you and I are in a queer fix, if ever there was one! God knows I meant to do the square thing," he went on gravely, "but I made a most awful hash of the whole business!"