They walked on in silence to the end of the terrace, and it was not till after they had turned that the young man spoke again.
"I believe you're overdrawing it," he said, with some decision.
"Isn't it you who are overdrawing what I mean? I'm simply trying to say that while things won't be very pleasant for you, they won't be worse than you can easily bear—especially when Dorothea has steeled herself to them in advance. I repeat, too, that, poor as I am, my presence will be taken as safeguarding some of the proprieties people expect one to observe. I speak of my presence, but, after all, you may have provided yourself with some one better. I didn't think of that."
"No; there's no one."
"Then Dorothea is coming all alone?"
"Reggie Bradford is bringing her—if you want to know."
"By the ten-five train?"
"No; in his motor."
"How very convenient these motors are! And has she no companion but Mr. Bradford?"
"She hasn't any companion at all. She doesn't even know that the man driving the machine is Reggie. He thought that, going very slowly, as he promised to do, to avoid all chances of accident, they might arrive by eleven."