"Why was it most important that you should see me?" I asked, and looked from one to the other as I put the question.
Cruikshank kept his eyes fixed upon his plate, whereby I knew that this was a moment when silence was expected of him. I turned my eyes to Bellwattle.
"Well!" said I.
She drank some water from her glass before she answered me. The pause, in fact, was most elaborate.
"It's to do with the cottage," she replied, at last.
"What cottage?"
"In the hollow. Cruikshank has done it up, furnished it, with the idea of letting it for the spring and summer. Autumn, too, if any one wanted it. We thought you'd like to stay there this summer—not, of course, to our letting but our invitation. We—"
"You'd better say yes," interrupted Cruikshank.
"He needn't say yes till he's seen it," Bellwattle broke in again.
I looked from one to the other. My eyes rested last on Bellwattle.