Constance suddenly became aware that her guest was still standing; she moved along and made place on the wall. “Won’t you sit down? Oh, excuse me,” she added with an anxious glance at his clothes, “I’m afraid you’ll get dusty; it would be better to bring a chair.” She nodded toward the terrace.
“I am only too honored; the last time I came you did not invite me to sit on the wall.”
“I am sorry if I appeared inhospitable, but you came so unexpectedly, Mr. Hilliard.”
“Why ‘Mr. Hilliard’? When you wrote you called me ‘dear Jerry’.”
“That was a slip of the pen; I hope you will excuse it.”
“When I wrote I called you ‘Miss Wilder’; that was a slip of the pen too. What I meant to say was ‘dear Constance’.”
She let this pass without comment.
“I have an apology to make.”
“Yes?”