“Fancy asking me that!”
“Do you realize that all this is dreadfully improper?”
“Oh, I say, now! Where's the harm? If ever there was a young woman capable of taking care of herself—”
“That isn't it. It's just being here alone with you.”
“But you are not alone with me!”
“Kuroki?” Kitty shrugged.
“No. At my side of the table is Stefani Gregor; at yours the man who has befriended me.”
“Thank you for that. I don't know of anything nicer you could say. But the outside world would see neither of our friends. I did not come here to see you.”
“No need of telling me that.”
“I had a problem—a very difficult one—to solve; and I believed that I might solve it if I came to these rooms. I had quite forgotten you.”