"You surprise me; I supposed your acceptance was of some standing. I hope there's nothing wrong, that your chief hasn't forgotten his position, and turned fractious?"
"Oh, no, my chief behaves very well," Stanley hastened to assure her, "but the fact is—I, well, I don't find it convenient."
"Or, in other words, you've some reason for not wanting to go."
He assented, having learned by long and bitter experience, that when a woman makes up her mind to exert her faculties of instinct, it is easier by far to acquiesce at once in any conclusion to which she may have jumped, however erroneous.
"Will you be shocked if I say I'm glad of it?"
The Secretary shrugged his shoulders; he thought he knew what was coming.
"It certainly isn't complimentary to me," he replied; "but you've always exercised the prerogative of a friend to tell disagreeable truths."
"Now, that's very unkind, Mr. Stanley. I'm sure I only do it for your good."
"My dear Lady Isabelle, if you'll allow a man who is older than your charming self, and who has seen more of the world than I hope you'll ever do——"
"To tell a disagreeable truth?" she queried, filling out the sentence, as pique prompted her.