'I think your answer to me was very unkind.'
'I didn't mean it so.'
'You simply said that you wouldn't do as I wished.'
'Not that I wouldn't, but that it was impossible. And I showed you the reasons—though I should have thought it superfluous.'
Alma waited a moment, then asked——
'Is this house let?'
'I don't know. I suppose not.'
'Then there is no reason whatever why we shouldn't stay here.'
'There is every reason why we shouldn't stay here. Every arrangement has been made for our leaving—everything fully talked over. What has made you change your mind?'
'I haven't really changed my mind. I always disliked the idea of going to Gunnersbury, and you must have seen that I did; but I was so much occupied with—with other things; and, as I have told you, I didn't feel quite the same about my position as I do now.'