“I’ve told you before, Steve, that when your crowd wants my job they can have it. I’ll get out any day. But—I shall choose my own friends.”
“They don’t want you to throw up your job. In fact you’re indispensable. But it’s because you are so important that your association with these people is injurious to the cause.”
She half stopped and faced him.
“Steve,” she said, “why did you come up here to meet me?”
It was such an abrupt breaking off of the former topic of conversation that Lamar replied awkwardly:
“Why, I—I wanted to tell you this.”
“What else did you want to tell me?”
“I wanted to tell you that I heard to-day that you are likely to marry young Malleson. He’s been asked if there’s an engagement, and he doesn’t deny it. The thing has got on my nerves. I felt that I couldn’t sleep without getting an assurance from you that there’s nothing in it.”
“Let me see. I told you once that if you would do something for me you should have your reward.”
“Yes.”