"Tea first, please."
They both laughed when she handed him a second slice of bread.
"These sandwiches strike me as unusually nice," he informed her. "It's exceptionally good tea, too. I don't remember ever getting anything to equal them at a hotel."
The blue eyes gleamed with amusement.
"You have been in the cold all night—but I was once in a restaurant." She watched the effect of this statement on him. "You know I really can't sing—I was never taught, anyway—though there were some of the settlements where we did rather well."
Vane hummed a few bars of a song.
"I don't suppose you realize what one ballad of yours has done. I'd almost forgotten the Old Country, but the night I heard you I felt I must go back and see it again. What's more, Carroll and I are going shortly—it's your doing."
This was a matter of fact; but Kitty Blake had produced a deeper effect on him, although he was not yet aware of it.
"It's a shame to keep you handing me things to eat," he added disconnectedly. "Still, I'd like another piece."
She smiled delightfully as she passed the food to him.