“It was very good of him,” said Bram. “I’m afraid I don’t do him much credit; I’m such a rough sort of chap.”
Miss Biron looked at him rather shyly, and laughed.
“Well, you were, just a little. But you are—are——”
“A little bit better now?” suggested Bram modestly.
“Well, I was going to say a great deal better, only I was afraid it sounded rather rude. What I meant was that—that——”
“Well, I should like to hear what it was you meant.”
“Well, that you speak differently, for one thing.”
“But I slip back sometimes,” said Bram, laughing and blushing, just as she laughed and blushed. “It’s so hard not to say ‘Ah’ when I ought to say ‘I.’ I’m getting on, I know, but it’s like walking on eggs all the time.”
Then they both laughed again, and at this point the door opened and Mr. Biron came in.
He was very amiable, and insisted on Bram’s coming into the dining-room with him. As Bram neither smoked nor drank, however, Theodore’s offer of whisky and cigars was thrown away. But Bram sat down and made a very good audience, laughing at his host’s stories and jokes, so that he found himself forced into accepting an invitation to come in again on the following evening.