“And the risk of fences you are wise enough to avoid.”
“Nothing of the kind. I was hunting in Leicestershire only yesterday.”
“Impossible, Robert!”
“Indisputable fact——” He had it on his lips to call her “Isabel,” but for some reason checked himself. “A friend of mine took me down and mounted me. I enjoyed it thoroughly.”
“But you are becoming an Englishman.”
“Was I ever anything else?”
“I believe I generally think of you in an Oriental light. At all events, you smoke a hookah, and very much prefer lying on a rug to sitting on a chair.”
“The hookah I have abandoned; the rug comes of your imagination.”
“Oh dear no; it was one of the first things you said to me when you came to see me last spring in town. It stamped you in my mind for ever.”
They laughed.