"Ah, it is good for you to have a housekeeper for a time," said Christina cruelly, she did not know why.
"It's my firm belief," remarked Swift, "that you have learnt these dodges in England, and that you did not detest the whole thing!"
The words had a far-away familiar sound to Christina, and they were spoken in the pointed accents with which one quotes.
"Did I say I should detest the whole thing?" asked Christina, marking the tablecloth with a fork.
"You did; they were your very words."
"Come, I don't believe that."
"I can't help it; those were your words. They were your very last words to me."
"And you actually remember them?"
She looked at him, smiling; but his face put out her smile, and the wave of compassion which now swept over hers confirmed the knowledge that had come to him with her first frightened glance.
The storekeeper, who came in before more was said, was the unconscious witness of a well-acted interlude of which he was also the cause. He approved of Miss Luttrell at the tea tray, and was to some extent recompensed for the hard day's work he had not done. He left her with Swift on the back veranda, and they might have been grateful to him, for not only had his advent been a boon to them both at a very awkward moment, but, in going, he supplied them with a topic.