She turned round quickly, and saw Lord Annerley, who had ridden up to the other side of the carriage.
"Lord Annerley! Really, how very surprising! I thought that you had gone off to break the bank at Monaco. Francis said so."
"I had meant to go," he began, twirling his little waxen moustache with his small hand, of which he seemed inordinately proud; "but something kept me in London."
He looked down at her boldly in a manner which he, no doubt, considered fascinating. Resisting a strong inclination to throw the little cad, with his irreproachable tailor-like get-up into the mud, I raised my hat to Maud, and turned away. But she called me back.
"You have not answered me, Mr. Arbuthnot. Is it to be no or yes?"
"I am sorry, Miss Devereux, that I have nothing to add to my previous answer," I said stiffly, for her beautiful smiling face seemed to me like the face of a temptress just then.
"Just as you wish, of course," she answered coldly, with a slight haughty inclination of her head. "And now, Lord Annerley," I heard her add, in a very altered tone, "I hear that you have a new team. Do tell me all about them. Are they greys or mixed?"
I walked away, nor did I enter the Park again whilst I was in London.