“That’s very kind of you,” she said, touched by this act of generosity, and secretly embarrassed. She could not without ungraciousness refuse, but she wished that he had not placed her under this obligation.
“It will serve to pass an hour or two when you weary of the same old road,” he said, smiling.
He was jealous because she had found a companion for the road; that this companion did not play games was a source of satisfaction to him.
“But you break up the set when you leave,” she said.
“We played three before you arrived,” he reminded her. “When you get back to the Bay I’m coming in sometimes to play with you at the Club courts. You’re a member, I suppose?”
She nodded.
“Are you?”
“I am about to become one,” he answered, with an amused look at her surprised face. “I’ve thought of joining often. You know the acquaintance isn’t going to end here. I may see you again?”
He looked at her with great earnestness, and waited with such obvious anxiety for her reply that it seemed to her there was only one possible answer to his question. And indeed she was very willing to continue a friendship which had been on the whole agreeable.
“I should be sorry if I thought it would be otherwise,” she said, with kind sincerity. “It would seem strange not to meet, seeing that we have been such good friends.”