Sabina sidled towards the table.
"I'm just after my tea," she said, "and I'd be ashamed to be sitting down with a gentleman like yourself."
"Nonsense," said Meldon, "I want to talk to you, and I can't do that if you're standing there in the middle of the floor so as I'd get a crick in my neck trying to look at you. Sit down at once."
Sabina grinned sheepishly and sat down. Meldon drank off his cup of tea at a draught, and poured out a second.
"Have you taken the advice I gave you the other day about your cooking?" he asked.
"Is it making them things with olives?"
"It is."
"Well, I have not; for I wouldn't be fit."
"I'm glad to hear it," said Meldon. "Circumstances have arisen since I last saw you which render it desirable that you should cook as badly as possible during the next few days. There's a judge coming here this evening."
"I heard Mr. Doyle saying that same," said Sabina.