"She said she was n't going home. She was out shopping, it seemed. In fact, she got down at a shop in Oxford Street. I insisted on her keeping the umbrella, though."
"As a gift?"
"No," said Dicky with a twinkle; "as a hostage."
"And you gave her your address?"
Dicky's radiant countenance clouded for a moment.
"Not quite," he said. "I meant to, of course; but I can't have been quite my own calm self; for instead of giving her my own address, I asked for hers."
"She gave it, I suppose?" said Lady Adela dryly.
"No. She hesitated badly. I ought to have realised at once that I was not quite playing the game; but I was so mad keen to see her again that the idea never occurred to me. I simply thought she had forgotten where she lived, or something, and waited."
"But finally," said Lady Adela, "the young--lady did confide her address to you?"
Dicky nodded, and his mother continued:--