"I will come with pleasure."
"That is how people speak when they don't like to refuse a troublesome invitation."
"Then what am I to say? I spoke the truth, in quite simple words."
"I suppose it was your tone; you seemed too polite."
"But what is your objection to politeness?" Miriam asked naively.
"Oh, I have none, when it is sincere. But as soon as I had asked you, I felt afraid that I was troublesome."
"If I had felt that, I should have expressed it unmistakably," she replied, in a voice which reminded him of the road from Baiae to Naples.
"Thank you; that is what I should wish."
Having found a carriage for her, and made an appointment for the morning, he watched her drive away.
A few hours later, he encountered Spence in the Piazza Colonna, and they went together into a caffe. Spence had the news that Mrs. Lessingham and her niece would arrive on the third day from now. Their stay would be of a fortnight at longest.