"Miss Van Teyl?" he replied, a little hesitatingly.
"How clever of you to know my voice!" she observed. "I am in the humour to talk. Will you sit down, please?"
Mr. Fischer humbly drew a chair to her side.
"I had an idea," he said, "that you had been avoiding me the last two or three days."
"I have," she admitted.
"Have I offended you, then?"
"Scarcely that," she replied, "only, you see, it seemed waste of time to talk to you with the foils on, and a little dangerous, perhaps, to talk to you with them off."
His face reflected his admiration.
"Miss Van Teyl," he declared, "you are quite a wonderful person. I have never believed very much in women before. Perhaps that is the reason why I have never married."
"Dear me, are you a woman-hater?" she asked.