Her manner lost something of its verve.
'It isn't safe, you know, really,' he added.
'And won't you come?'
'I cannot; not this morning.'
'Well,' she said, with a little sigh, as she thrust in her hat-pins, 'Mrs. Max will be disappointed. On her command I came to break up this seclusion of yours. None of us have seen you for—'
'A week, seven days!'
'What are you doing?'
'Oh—I've been working out some ideas.'
'But you are so quiet about it! What are the ideas?'
Noakes hesitated, and she laughed merrily as she went toward the door.