“Quite true, and quite right,” said Lydia, cordially. “Good-bye, Mr. Cashel Byron. I must rejoin Miss Goff.”
“I suppose you will take her part if she keeps a down on me for what I said to her.”
“What is ‘a down’? A grudge?”
“Yes. Something of that sort.”
“Colonial, is it not?” pursued Lydia, with the air of a philologist.
“Yes; I believe I picked it up in the colonies.” Then he added, sullenly, “I suppose I shouldn’t use slang in speaking to you. I beg your pardon.”
“I do not object to it. On the contrary, it interests me. For example, I have just learned from it that you have been in Australia.”
“So I have. But are you out with me because I annoyed Miss Goff?”
“By no means. Nevertheless, I sympathize with her annoyance at the manner, if not the matter, of your rebuke.”
“I can’t, for the life of me, see what there was in what I said to raise such a fuss about. I wish you would give me a nudge whenever you see me making a fool of myself. I will shut up at once and ask no questions.”