"Why should I?" she said coolly.
"I thought you might have grown impatient. There's a bit of a barge round the refreshments." He sat down beside her. "You remind me so much of someone I've met," he said thoughtfully. "Now who can it be?"
She sipped her hock-cup. "Funny," she said. "I don't seem to know you at all. You don't live here, do you?"
"Oh no!" he replied. "I'm merely a bird of passage. I'm staying with the Matthews'."
"Yes? For long?"
"No, just till I've cleared up a little matter that's interesting me."
She inclined her head. "I see. It sounds most intriguing."
He looked down at her. "Somehow I don't think you can be the girl I had in mind."
"No? Who is she?"
"Oh, nobody you would be likely to know. Rather a callow young thing."