“Your father was good enough to ask me to call,” he reminded her, with gentleness.
“I asked for him, and I——”
“You are disappointed to find him out?” Yes; there could be no doubt she was amusing herself. “Oh, that depends,” ventured David, with temerity.
The girl surveyed him at her leisure. “If I remember aright,” she said, “you were invited conditionally. You were to come, or rather to communicate with us, if you decided to close with my father’s offer. So I suppose you’ve made up your mind to accept.”
“Well, I should like to talk more about it; get a clearer idea of what was proposed.”
“My father takes great pains in expressing himself. I should have said his explanation was as full as anything could well be on this earth.”
“To speak frankly,” replied David, “I got the idea that you didn’t care much about your father’s scheme—in fact, that you disliked it. That’s what I wanted to be clear about. It would be ridiculous for me to be going round, delivering instructive lectures to you on antiquities and ruins and so forth, and you hating me all the while for a bore and a nuisance. It would place us both in a false position.”
“And you can’t stand false positions, eh?”
Mosscrop rose. “I’m afraid I can’t stand this one, at all events,” he answered, with dignified brevity.
“Oh, you mustn’t think of going!” his hostess protested, with a momentary ring of animation in her voice. “My father’s liable to return any minute, and he’d be greatly put out to find he’d missed you.”