"Of the mongrel kind, Mr. Askew. Do you speak of yourself?"
He nodded laughingly. "Dogs are so devoted!"
"That means you wish to attach yourself to me," said Leah, gravely. "I might take you at your word--I need a friend; but Ulysses deserted Circe."
Askew laughed, and gazed admiringly at her beautiful, pensive face. "We talk parables, I think," he said, with assumed lightness.
"Prehistoric man always did, I understand."
"On the contrary, his speech was direct and blunt!"
"Mine will be now," smiled Lady Jim. "This cup has been empty for five minutes, and you never offered to----"
The young man took the tiny cup hastily. "But for the publicity of the place, I would ask you to tread upon my prostrate body."
Leah eyed his lithe, active figure as he went to the bamboo table presided over by Lady Frith. He was really a delightful sailorman, she reflected, and quicker than most of his sex to understand the unspoken. It might be more amusing to drop Demetrius and flirt with him. But then, his face was too honest, and he might object to being made use of.
"Men of that kind are so dreadfully in earnest," sighed Leah, with a sense of irritation; "they think a woman always means what she says."