"Won't you take this tray—take it down with you?"
"Don't you want me to sit a while?"
"Don't let me interfere with your work."
"Oh, there's no hurry."
"I'm sure you want to be at it."
He took the tray from her lap, put it on the floor beside his chair. She reached for the book on the stand at her elbow, opened it, seemed to be waiting for him to go. He glanced round uncertainly. "What a charming room this is," said he. "That pale brown paper with the panels made by broad violet stripes— Let me see—was this one of the rooms you did over?"
She was reading.
"Yes of course. In my aunt's time— You'd have admired her, and she'd have been invaluable as a teacher. But then she taught Nanny; and Nanny's been very good about teaching you, hasn't she?"
No answer.
He laughed. "We've got a rather bad habit of not listening—haven't we?"