“I did it because I had been tantalized by one meeting with you, and I could not wait patiently till chance put me in the way of another. I therefore called, first on Lady Jennings and then at Mrs. Davison’s, in the hope of seeing you.”
Miss Davison seemed alarmed, he thought, though she laughed lightly, and affected to be rather amused.
“To look for such a busy, hardworked creature as I am, in any particular spot, is rather a hopeless task,” she said. “I have been so overworked lately that I have had to threaten to take a long holiday if I am not allowed a little more relaxation.”
He hesitated and then said quickly—
“I suppose it’s asking too much to beg you to let me call at your studio and see these designs which have made so great a mark.”
She smiled.
“A great deal too much,” she said. “I never let anyone see me at my work. Indeed, having to get through it in a totally inadequate time, on account of social engagements I won’t and can’t give up, I couldn’t do it unless I made it a rule that I should be left uninterrupted. Even my own friends are not allowed to visit me in my professional den. I’m an advanced woman, you see, strong-minded, and all that,” she added lightly. “The mere feminine holder of a latch-key is a slave compared to me.”
But Gerard, who saw that she kept looking at the draper’s shop in front of which the victoria was standing, as if anxious to get rid of him, was not going to take his dismissal until he had paved the way for the explanation which he was by this time determined that she should give him.
“You are waiting for someone?” he asked.
“Yes, for Lady Jennings. This is her carriage, not mine. She is buying something that ought to have been chosen and paid for in five minutes, but she has our sex’s proverbial inability to make up its mind.”