She looked almost as much startled as he could have wished.
“When, Morris? Where?”
“At once,” he said gloomily. “I don’t know where—or care.”
He had meant to ask her if she would “wait for him” in the time-honoured phrase, but he had not reckoned on having to cram the whole parting scene, as it were, into the last three minutes of his interview.
Rosamund also looked at Bertha’s advancing form and spoke rapidly.
“I didn’t know you meant to go away, Morris.”
Was her voice trembling a little?
“I didn’t!” he cried passionately.
Bertha hailed them with a prolonged “coo-ee” that might have been regarded as superfluous in view of the fact that only some rapidly diminishing hundred yards now lay between them.
“I didn’t,” repeated Morris earnestly, and was unable to resist adding, “but—it’s the only way.”