“Condition?”
“That you sit down and talk to me for a minute or two.”
“Why should I do that?” she asked, with a querulous uplifting of the eyebrows, which he had already noticed were very fine and silky.
“Because we are neighbours,” he replied. “Because I have just returned to this country after many years spent abroad, and I am at times lonely. Because I am quite sure that Madame can spare you for half an hour, and because—here is a great idea—if I let you have my gardener for half an hour, why shouldn’t Madame, as you call her, let me have her companion for the same length of time?”
She looked at him with mild curiosity. Her self-possession was so marked as to indicate indifference.
“Is it my fancy,” she asked, “or are you rather a strange person?”
“I like to talk,” he confided. “All my life I have had to live amongst silent people. That is finished. Agreeable society is one of the things to which I have looked forward upon my return to England.”
“Then why on earth did you come to Market Ballaston?” she demanded, with unexpected vehemence. “You won’t find any society here. Why did you come? Why did you choose this place?”
She had without warning adopted an almost inquisitive tone, but his eyes met hers steadily. He seemed to be trying to divine her sudden access of interest.
“I came,” he explained, “because I like a large house and gardens, when I can afford them, and this place is very cheap. I had to settle down somewhere, and this neighbourhood is as good as any other. As to the people—well, if there is no one here who wants to be friendly, I must make the best of it. I have been abroad for a great many years, but I have a few friends left who will find me out in time.”