"Sit down!" he commanded—"over there where I can see you. I have something to say."
She looked at him in amazement. The determined ring in his voice made her half afraid. What had he to say?
"What do you mean?" she retorted.
"Just what I said. Sit down!"
The fair shoulders shrugged. She was accustomed to these outbursts, but not to this ring in his voice.
"Go on—what is it?"
Thayor crossed the room, shut the door and turned the key in the lock. She watched him in silence as he switched off the electric lights along the bookcases, until naught illumined the still library but the soft glow of the lamp and the desultory flare from the hearth.
Still he did not speak. Finally the storm broke.
"What I have to say to you is this: I'm sick of this wholesale giving of dinners."
Alice let go her breath. After all, it was not what was uppermost in her mind.