“Just before I went out to lunch a very rum thing happened: at least, I thought it was rum until I found out what it was. I was opening the door of my room when I heard, in the passage, your voice, Nancy! Yes, your voice, with that little dare-devil tone you put on sometimes, saying these extraordinary words: ‘I think it’s to the Savoy that I’m going out with Mr. Waters to-day!’
“I couldn’t think what on earth was the meaning of it, with you miles away in Anglesey.”
(But already I smiled, seeing what was coming!)
“I wondered what could have brought you back, or if I’d got an hallucination—can you hear hallucinations?—and I bolted out into the passage, nearly knocking over two of the typists who were coming down it.
“Miss Smith (that’s the one whose affections are otherwise engaged, isn’t it?) fled like a hare; but that tall, dark Miss Robinson stood her ground, only moving aside a little for me to pass. I stopped and asked her straight out, ‘Was it you who were speaking a moment ago?’
“She said ‘Yes’—all meekness at once. ‘Mimicking hussy’ I thought—for it really had been exactly the way I’ve heard you speak, you know, sometimes. It was all I could do to keep from laughing outright, but I just said ‘Well, I am writing to Miss Trant to-day; can I give her any message from you?’
“And she said (in that ‘mim’ voice, which I’m blest if I shall ever feel able to believe in again!) ‘Will you please give her my love, Mr. Waters?’
“So with love from Miss Robinson, I remain,
“Your
“Billy.”