‘I was, quite alone.’
The ‘quite’ seemed excessive; it made Jasper smile.
‘And also,’ he added, ‘that I shall not annoy you by offering my company?’
‘Why should it annoy me?’
‘Good!’
Milvain had only to wait a minute or two. He surveyed Marian from head to foot when she appeared—an impertinence as unintentional as that occasionally noticeable in his speech—and smiled approval. They went out into the fog, which was not one of London’s densest, but made walking disagreeable enough.
‘You have heard from the girls, I think?’ Jasper resumed.
‘Your sisters? Yes; they have been so kind as to write to me.’
‘Told you all about their great work? I hope it’ll be finished by the end of the year. The bits they have sent me will do very well indeed. I knew they had it in them to put sentences together. Now I want them to think of patching up something or other for The English Girl; you know the paper?’
‘I have heard of it.’