“It’s a quarter to two,” he exclaimed at length. “Are you not hungry?”
“I meant to lunch here; perhaps it is time.”
“In that case we’ll lunch together—if you permit it?”
They did so in complete good-fellowship, the only difficulty arising when Lacour desired to pay for both. Ada opposed this, and in a manner which proved her in earnest.
“You return to-night?” he asked, leaning towards her on the table when the waiter’s demands had been severally met.
“To-morrow morning. I stay with friends.”
“At the Meres’?” he asked quickly.
“Yes.”
He fingered a bottle in the cruet-stand, his lips slightly drawn together.
“You do not know them intimately?” Ada asked, observing him.