"Any place is beastly when one has to be there. And you've been here a whole fifteen months. Think what I've missed!"
Mavis had, by now, got over her first excitement at meeting her old friend: her habitual prudence essayed to work—essayed, because its customary vigour was just now somewhat impaired.
"I'm glad to have met you again. Good-bye," she said.
"Eh!"
"It's time I got back."
The man stared at her in some astonishment.
"Perhaps you're right," he remarked presently.
"Right!" she echoed, faintly surprised.
"I'm only a waster. Nobody wants anything to do with me."
Something in the tone of the man's voice stirred her heart to pity.