Melville, of course, dropped the subject, but noted her reply for future use. What he wanted to ascertain most at the moment was Lady Holt's feeling for her husband, but she gave him no opportunity.
"What's your brother like?" she enquired. "Anything like you?"
"Nothing," said Melville shortly. "Ralph is a paragon of all the virtues and I'm—not."
"And he's like a son to Sir Geoffrey?" said Mrs. Sinclair. "Is he to be his heir?"
"I don't know," Melville answered moodily. "I suppose so; but, as a matter of fact, Sir Geoffrey hasn't made his will, so I don't know what he will do with his money."
Mrs. Sinclair yawned. The conversation really did not interest her much, and she had her own reasons for not wishing to let it get too intimate. She had taken a fancy to Melville when she first saw him in the Riviera; he belonged to the type of man in whose company she was most at home, and she foresaw a certain amount of pleasurable excitement in which she could participate with him without being worried by demonstrations of a more affectionate interest, which men not related to her were apt to make. A nephew is safer than a cousin.
"You must ask me to dine with you," she said, "and we will develop our acquaintance gradually. I hate finding out all about people at once and having nothing left to learn."
"Dine with me to-night," said Melville promptly. The hundred pounds were burning a hole in his pocket, and he felt convinced that more would be forthcoming now from the same source. "Where shall it be?"
"Wherever you like," Mrs. Sinclair replied. "I'm always interested in people's varying ideas of hospitality. Come here for me at half-past seven and take me to the appointed place. Only don't tell me now where it is to be."
"All right," said Melville with alacrity. He liked her point of view and felt amazingly sympathetic already. Moreover, he recognised as clearly as she did the value of their relationship as a preventative of mutual misunderstandings. "I will go and fix it up. 'Pon my honour, I'm awfully delighted about this."