"Then why do you have him here?"
The note of reprimand was unconscious, but to the young girl it was plain and her heart thrilled in response to its authority.
"We needed an extra man for our dinner—the dinner that you refused to come to."
She laughed at him in roguish triumph, and it was indescribably charming.
He joined in, shame-faced, mumbling something about his work.
"So you see, Mr. Burrage," she said, "in a sort of way it was your fault."
"It's not my fault that he keeps on coming."
"No, I guess that's mine. I ask him and he has to pay a call. He's very polite about that."
She laughed again, delighted at this second chance, but now he did not join in. Instead he became gravely urgent, much more so than so slight a matter demanded.
"But look here, Miss Alston, what's the sense of doing that? What's the sense of having a person round you don't like?"
She gave a deprecating shrug.