"Oh, really, you know, it is not my name," said Blount. "I'm always called Tom by my friends."
"Yes?" Elfrida turned and gave him a wonderful little look from under her hat—a charming hat all covered with violets. "Am I your friend?" asked she.
"My friend?" he stammered, and then stopped. Something in her face, her eyes, that were looking over her shoulder at some one approaching, checked another word. He, too, looked hastily backwards, to see Ambert coming out of the tent and approaching them, a cup in his hand and a scowl upon his brow. Mrs. Greatorex and Miss Firs-Robinson were behind him.
CHAPTER XVI
He turned to Elfrida, his face pale and miserable. He hardly knew what he was saying.
"He is coming—Ambert, I mean. He will ask you to go and see the houses with him."
"Is that all?" Elfrida looked amused.
"He is going to ask you to marry him."
"Is that all!" She laughed now, merrily. Her lovely little face, that was so infantile, yet so strong and so determined beneath all its youth and sweetness, seemed now slightly mocking.
"Don't go with him," entreated Blount passionately. All in a moment the youth of his own face seemed to die from it. He looked strong and earnest. His eyes were lit with a fire she had not thought them capable of. She looked at him strangely for awhile. Then she smiled.