Surprised! It was a feeble description; idiotic was distinctly better. He stood as one paralysed, listening whilst she excitedly continued:
"I have told you so dozens, hundreds, thousands, millions of times!"
Trust a woman if she picks up figures to shed them with a lavish hand! The blank look on Dick's face intensified. He shook his head in utter hopelessness; the mystery was too much for him. He was dealing with a woman, and—and—well, he was only an average specimen of a man after all!
"Do I sleep?" He found voice at last; quoted: "Do I dream? Or are visions about?"
"I felt mad when I got the letter to say you insisted on the Chantrelles coming here for Christmas. But I didn't like to disappoint you, Dick, the moment of your home-coming, too."
"I insisted?" He was all eagerness as he blurted out the question. "Who says I insisted?"
"Amy in her letter said so——"
"The awful liar!"
"Nice way to talk of a lady!"
"Lady be—I mean she's not a lady if she set down such a thing in black and white. She so badgered me on the boat with hints for an invitation, that at last, in sheer desperation, I did ask them to come."