He would not meet her eyes; but Alma searched his face for the meaning of these words, so evidently weighted.
'Are you at all uneasy, Harvey?'
'Not a bit—not a bit,' answered the weak man in him. 'I only meant that, if we are going to remove——'
They sat for more than five minutes in silence. Alma's brain was working very rapidly, as her features showed. When he entered, she looked rather sleepy; now she was thrilling with vivid consciousness; one would have thought her absorbed in the solution of some exciting problem. Her next words came unexpectedly.
'Harvey, if you mean what you say about letting me follow my own instincts, I think I shall decide to try my fortune—to give a public recital.'
He glanced at her, but did not answer.
'We made a sort of bargain—didn't we?' she went on, quickly, nervously, with an endeavour to strike the playful note. 'Hughie shall go to Mrs. Abbott's, and I will attend to what you said about the choice of acquaintances.'
'But surely neither of those things can be a subject of bargaining between us? Isn't your interest in both at least equal to my own?'
'Yes—I know—of course. It was only a joking way of putting it.'
'Tell me plainly'—he looked at her now—'have you the slightest objection, on any ground, to Hughie's being taught by Mrs. Abbott? If so, do let us clear it up.'