"No, indeed. She does not even know I was coming here."
There was a pause, then he said:
"I suppose you do not think I have taken a liberty in calling on you, Miss Stafford?"
"Oh dear, no! I have known you so long, and your sister is such an intimate acquaintance of mine, that I could not be anything of that sort. What makes you ask?"
"Well, you looked so--so surprised at seeing me."
"I was surprised at seeing anyone. No one ever comes here after me."
"No?" said John Merton, interrogatively, and his face seemed to brighten as he said it.
"No," said Daisy; "and my landlady must have been as much astonished as I am. You must have made a very favourable impression on her to obtain admittance."
"Mrs. Gillot is a very old friend of mine," said John Merton. "She has known me since I was a boy; but I should not have presumed upon that acquaintance to ask for you, nor indeed, Miss Stafford, should I have ventured to come here at all, if I had not something very particular to say to you."
"Very particular to say to me!"