Lady Maud, who had been extremely occupied with her own affairs of late, had almost forgotten the story, and was now afraid that she had made a mistake, but she caught at the most evident means of setting it right.
'Yes, of course. All the better, if you are seen stopping in the same house. People will see that it's all right.'
'Well, maybe they would. I'd rather, if it'll do her any good. But perhaps she doesn't want to meet me. She wasn't over-anxious to talk to me on the steamer, I noticed, and I didn't bother her much. She's a lovely woman!'
Lady Maud looked at him, and her beautiful mouth twitched as if she wanted to laugh.
'Miss Donne doesn't think you're a "lovely" man at all,' she said.
'No,' answered Mr. Van Torp, in a tone of child-like and almost sheepish regret, 'she doesn't, and I suppose she's right. I didn't know how to take her, or she wouldn't have been so angry.'
'When? Did you really ask her to marry you?' Lady Maud was smiling now.
'Why, yes, I did. Why shouldn't I? I guess it wasn't very well done, though, and I was a fool to try and take her hand after she'd said no.'
'Oh, you tried to take her hand?'
'Yes, and the next thing I knew she'd rushed out of the room and bolted the door, as if I was a dangerous lunatic and she'd just found it out. That's what happened—just that. It wasn't my fault if I was in earnest, I suppose.'