"Oh!" she breathed. And on second thoughts added, "I don't intend to 'scratch' you, and find things under the surface. I don't suppose I shall ever know you much better."
"Call it worse, then," he suggested.
"Neither better, nor worse!"
"Yet you've just promised to take me for both."
"That meant nothing, as you know very well."
"I do not know anything of the sort."
"Then you are a 'temporary gentleman' indeed! We spoke just now of that bargain——"
"Which, through your own actions, doesn't exist."
"Of course it exists. You talk in riddles!"
"When you put your mind to this one, it will cease to be a riddle. You'll guess it in a moment. You'll see what you've done. Probably Severance would have told you before this if he'd had the chance. The explanation, if there has to be one, will come better from him than from me. But I may as well break one small detail to you before we get to the hotel; I've no intention of leaving him alone with you for a minute, or any part of a minute, before he sails."