"Indeed, I don't see the likeness either way. I'm quite happy as I am."
He smiled mockingly.
"Quite happy! As it's very proper you should be, of course. Come, Mildred, no humbug! Think how you'd feel if you knew that instead of going to all those idiotic parties next week you were going to Constantinople."
"Isn't it dreadfully hot at this time of year?"
"I like it hot. But at any rate one can always find some cool place in the hottest weather. How would you like to go in a caravan from Cairo to Damascus next autumn?"
"I dare say it would be delightful, if the country one passed through were not too wild and dangerous. But Ian would never be able to leave his work for an expedition like that."
"I'd no idea you'd want him. I shouldn't. Do be serious. If you fancy I'm the sort of man you can go on playing with forever, you're most confoundedly mistaken."
Milly was both offended and alarmed. Was this strange man mad? And she alone with him on the river!
"I don't know what you mean," she said, coldly.