'Me?' Mrs. Rushmore unbent a little and smiled rather grimly.
'Yes. If I had not been so anxious to see you at once, I should have written or telegraphed to ask for a few minutes alone with you. But I could not afford to waste time.'
He spoke so gravely that she immediately suspected him of dark designs. Perhaps he was going to propose to her, since Margaret had refused him. She remembered instances of adventurers who had actually married widows of sixty for their money. She compressed her lips. She would be firm with him; he should have a piece of her mind.
'I am alone,' she said severely, a little as if warning him not to take liberties.
'My errand concerns a matter in which we have common interests at stake,' he said.
Mrs. Rushmore sat down on a garden chair, and pointed to the bench, on which he took his seat.
'I cannot imagine what interests you mean,' she said, with dignity. 'Pray explain. If you refer to Miss Donne, I may as well inform you with perfect frankness that it is of no use.'
Logotheti smiled and shook his head gently, keeping his eyes on Mrs. Rushmore's face, all of which she took to mean incredulity on his part.
'You may say what you like,' she said. 'It's of no use.'
When Mrs. Rushmore declared that you might say what you liked, she was in earnest, but her visitor was not familiar with the expression.