"What a stupid thing to say! Aren't I here talking to you now?"
"With a whole crowd of people round, yes."
She tapped the tennis ball from her racket to his chest, hitting it back and back again, as if he were a wall. For some minutes Le Breton watched her in an amused manner, as if she were something so favoured that she could do what she liked with him. Then he caught the ball and stopped the game.
"I've a challenge for you, too, Pansy," he said. "Will you meet me to-night, after dinner, near the fountain?"
"It wouldn't require a great amount of courage to do that."
"Will you come then?"
"You said I wasn't to wander about in the grounds alone at night."
"I'll come for you then, since you're so anxious to comply with my desires."
"'Comply with my desires,'" she repeated mockingly. "That's a nice useful phrase to hurl about."
There was an air of unusual and unaccustomed patience about Le Breton, as he argued with his moonbeam. Curious glances were cast in the direction of the couple. Miss Langham had never been seen to favour a man as she was favouring the French millionaire.