"Yes."
"You should not have done so, sir: Mowbray is not prodigal of such invitations."
Hoffland laughed.
"But I had a reason," he said mischievously.
"What, pray—if I may ask?"
"Oh, certainly, you may ask," Hoffland replied, smiling; "though it may appear very vain to you—my reason."
"Hum!" said Denis, not knowing what to think of his new acquaintance, whose quizzing manner, to use the technical word, did not please him.
"I told Mowbray very frankly, however, why I could not come this evening," pursued Hoffland, with the air of one child teasing another; "and I think he appreciated my reason. I was afraid on Miss Lucy's account."
"Afraid!"
"Yes."