She waited a minute before deciding to speak openly. "I suppose you never heard that he once asked me to marry him?"
He betrayed his surprise by the way in which he put down the little Chinese figure and wheeled round more directly toward her.
"Who? Peter?"
She nodded.
"What the dickens made him do that?"
She opened her eyes innocently. "I'm sure I can't imagine."
"It isn't a bit like him. You must have led him on."
"I didn't," she declared, indignantly. "I never took any notice of him at all. Nothing could have astonished me more than his—his presumption."
"And what did you say to him? Did you box his ears?"
"I was very rude, and that's partly the trouble now. I feel as if he'd been nursing a grudge against me all these years—and was paying it."