Immediately, with his inference of refusal, her disinclination to adopt the suggestion faded. She wanted to come. He had said he thought it would be pleasant; she, more positive in her opinions, knew that it would be pleasant, wonderfully pleasant. Very few pleasant adventures happened in her life; it was ridiculous to reject anything that offered for so feeble a reason as a sense of the unusual. Was that not after all recommendation in itself? She sought about in her mind for words in which to convey to him without appearing eager that she would like to come, but her vocabulary failed her; seldom had she been at so great a loss for words. Unexpectedly he came to her relief.
“I am infected with the holiday mood,” he said. “I want to enjoy things. And my holiday is very near the finish. I may leave any day—perhaps to-morrow. You too must know the holiday mood. We don’t leave it altogether behind with our childhood. I want to talk to you. We happened upon the acquaintance by accident—it is part of the holiday. That must be my apology for seeming intrusive.”
She turned towards him deliberately with a friendlier look in her eyes.
“I think my gaucherie needs some apologia too,” she confessed.
“Why not make it in the form of a concession?” he suggested hopefully, and experienced a curious satisfaction when suddenly she laughed.
Somehow he did not need any assurance in words that she would be on the beach that evening. Instinctively he felt that the reason which had been responsible for her reluctance to accede to his request no longer existed. Whatever it had been she had ridded herself of it. He liked to think that if she had felt a want of confidence in him, her feminine intuition had made it possible to conquer this mistrust. It was the first step towards that better understanding which he wished, he did not know why, to establish between them.
Chapter Five.
Brenda Upton, avoiding the notice of the general company by leaving the dinner table early that evening and slipping into the garden while most of the guests remained seated, sauntered down the path to the gate, thrilled with an agreeable sense of adventure that was only slightly damped by the reflection that her behaviour in meeting this stranger about whom she knew nothing was not in keeping with the traditions of her class, was, in fact indiscreet, and might be regarded by the man himself as evidence of an unconventionality of which he might seek to take advantage.