But Mrs. Barnes took no notice of my pleasantness. She had something on her mind. She looked like somebody who is reluctant and yet impelled.
'I think,' she said solemnly, 'that if you have a moment to spare it might be a good opportunity for a little talk. I would like to talk with you a little.'
And she stood regarding me, her eyes full of reluctant but unconquerable conscientiousness.
'Do,' I said, with polite enthusiasm. 'Do.'
This was the backwash, I thought, of Dolly's German outbreak the other day, and Siegfried was going at last to be explained to me.
'Won't you sit down in this chair?' I said, pushing a comfortable one forward, and then sitting down myself on the edge of the sofa.
'Thank you. What I wish to say is—'
She hesitated. I supposed her to be finding it difficult to proceed with Siegfried, and started off impulsively to her rescue.
'You know, I don't mind a bit about—' I began.
'What I wish to say is,' she went on again, before I had got out the fatal word, 'what I wish to point out to you—is that the weather has considerably cooled.'