"Then, sooner or later, I shall have my blessing," he said quietly. "Couldn't you give me just a small first instalment of it now? Couldn't you tell me what changed you toward me on the ship? Had it anything to do with my family—any gossip you heard?"
"In a way, yes. But I can't possibly tell you. Please don't ask me."
"I won't. But give me some hope that I can live it
down. You see, I can't spare you out of my life. I had you in it only a few days. Yet those days have made all the difference."
Win stiffened.
"I can't let you talk to me like that," she said almost sharply, if her creamy voice could be sharp. "I hate it. You'll make me wish—for my own sake—if it weren't for my friend, I mean—that you hadn't found me here. I thought—I don't see why I shouldn't say it!—when I asked for work in your father's store that none of the family would ever come near the place. I was told they never did. But it wasn't true. You all come!"
"You mean my father and I?"
"And Miss Rolls, too––"
"She came?"
"Yes, with Lord Raygan, and—and I think you and Lady Eileen were here, too."