“Oh, I’ve been trying to catch your eye for ages,” screamed Mrs. Wolfe. “You never answered my chit, and you know you half promised to take me on the lake to-morrow. Do; come and have tiffin first.”
He shook his head, and, before he had time to speak, she hastily added:
“Oh then, I’ll meet you at the boathouse! I don’t intend to let you off. An hour’s rowing on the Hussain Saugur will be so good for you!”
Just at this moment Captain Falkland’s eye caught mine, and he exclaimed:
“Miss Lingard! Well, I am astonished. When did you come out?”
I was prevented from answering by Kipper, who had also recognised me, and sprang into my lap in a state of hysterical delight, ruining my nice clean white linen with the red dust off his paws.
“So you and Miss Lingard have already met?” said Mrs. Soames, and I noticed that Mrs. Wolfe honoured me with a piercing stare.
“Oh yes, we knew one another at home,” he replied, and then this bold man stepped up and took a chair on “the cake”—the one just vacated by Mrs. Lakin.
“When did you arrive?” he repeated.
“Only the other day,” rejoined Mrs. Soames, evidently afraid that I would give myself away, and I sat by in helpless acquiescence. “Miss Lingard is staying with me.”