Quite unused to such direct dealing, she stammered: “I d-didn’t! Why should I——How can I know that you are to be trusted? I never set eyes on you until yesterday!”
“There, I am afraid, I can’t help you,” he said. “It would be of very little use to tell you that I am entirely to be trusted, so perhaps we had better continue to discuss the Pyrenees.”
There was an awful silence. “I beg your pardon!” said Nell stiffly.
“But why?” asked John.
“I did not mean to offend you.”
“Of course not. I’m not offended,” he said pleasantly. “On the contrary, I am very much obliged to you for having done my marketing for me. By the by, how much did you expend on my behalf, ma’am?”
A flush mounted to her cheek; she said: “You need not continue to slap me, Captain Staple!”
That made him laugh, A quick, indignant glance at him informed her, however, that the expression in his eyes was one of warm kindness. No one had ever looked at her just like that before, and it had the effect upon her of making her feel, for perhaps the first time in her life, a strong desire to lay the burden of her cares upon other shoulders. Captain Staple’s were certainly broad enough to bear them.
“That, at least, is something I should never do to you, Miss Stornaway,” he said. “I think life has dealt you too many slaps.”
“No—oh, no!” she said, in a shaken voice. “Indeed, I have been very much indulged!”