"Don't be awfully cross!" he exclaimed, laughing. "You know you half promised to come with me this afternoon, so I couldn't help having a spin out to see whether I could catch you up. Won't you allow me, Lady Caroom? The step is a little high."
"It isn't any use being cross with you," Sybil remarked. "It never seems to make any impression."
"I am terribly thick-skimmed," he answered, "when I don't want to understand. Will you ladies have some tea, or come and see how the restoration is getting on?"
"We were proposing to go and see what the German Emperor's idea of a
Roman camp was," Sybil answered.
"Oh, you can't shake me off now, can you, Lady Caroom?" he declared, appealing to her. "We'll consider it an accident that you found me here, if you like, but it is in reality a great piece of good fortune for you."
"And why, may I ask?" Sybil inquired, with uplifted eyebrows.
"Oh, I'm an authority on this place—come here nearly every day to give the director, as he calls himself, some hints. Come along, Lady Caroom. I'll show you the baths and the old part of the outer wall."
Lady Caroom very soon had enough of it. She sat down upon a tree and brought out her sketchbook.
"Give me a quarter of an hour, please," she begged, "not longer. I want to be home for tea."
They strolled off, Atherstone turning a little nervously to Sybil.