"I mean that I didn't want to come out here to-night!"
My face was growing hot, and try as I would to keep my eyes dry and professional-looking something sprang up and glittered so bewilderingly that as I turned away toward the lady on the calendar, she looked like a dozen ladies—all of them doing the hesitation waltz.
He straightened up in his chair, relieving that impertinent tilt.
"Oh,—you didn't want to come?"
"Of course not!"
I blinked decisively—and the red-gowned one faded back to her normal number, but my eyelids were heavy and wet still.
"But—but—"
"Please don't think that I came out here to-night because I wanted to see you, Mr. Tait!" I was starting to explain, when he interrupted me, the satire quite gone.
"But, after all, what else was there to do?" he asked, with surprising gentleness.