The color was a little plainer in her face than usual when she entered the room where he lay, pipe in hand, in a lounge chair. His attitude of languid ease irritated her. She had seen that there were several things outside which should have had some claim on his attention. A litter of letters and papers lay upon a little table at his side, but the fact that he could not reach them as he lay was suggestive. He did not notice her entrance immediately. He rose, when he saw her, and came forward with outstretched hand.
“I didn’t hear you,” he said. “This is a pleasure I scarcely anticipated.”
Agatha sat down in the chair that he drew out for her near the stove. He noticed that she glanced at the papers on the table, and he laughed.
“Bills, and things of that kind. They’ve been worrying me for a week or two,” he said lightly. He seized the litter, and bundling it together flung it into an open drawer, which he shut with a snap. “Anyway, that’s the last of them for to-day. I’m awfully glad you drove over.”
Agatha smiled. The action was so characteristic of the man. She had once found no fault with Gregory’s careless habits, and his way of thrusting a difficulty into the background had appealed to her. It had suggested his ability to straighten out the trouble when it appeared advisable. Now she told herself that she would not be absurdly hypercritical, and, as it happened, he had given her the lead that she desired.
“I should think that you would have had to give them more attention as wheat is going down,” she remarked.
Hawtrey looked at her with an air of reproach. “It must be nearly three weeks since I have seen you, and now you expect me to talk of farming.” He made a rueful gesture. “If you quite realized the situation it would be about the last thing you would ask me to do.”
Agatha was astonished to remember that three weeks had actually elapsed since she had last met him, and they had only exchanged a word or two then. He had certainly not obtruded himself upon her, for which she was grateful.
“Nobody is talking about anything except the fall in prices just now,” she persisted. “I suppose it affects you, too?”
Gregory, who seemed to accept this as a rebuff, looked at her rather curiously, and then laughed.