Sara regarded him with curiosity. He had been openly displeased to find her trespassing on his estate—which was only what current report would have led her to expect—yet now he was evincing a desire for her company, and, in addition, a very determined intention to secure it. The man was an enigma!
“I'm surprised,” she said lightly. “I gathered from a recent remark of yours that you didn't think too highly of women.”
“I don't,” he replied with uncompromising directness.
“Then why—why——”
“Perhaps I have a fancy to drop back for a brief space into the life I have renounced,” he suggested mockingly.
“Then you really are what they call you—a hermit?”
“I really am.”
“And feminine society is taboo?”
“Entirely—as a rule.” If, for an instant, the faintest of smiles modified the grim closing of his lips, Sara failed to notice it.
The cold detachment of his answer irritated her. It was as though he intended to remain, hermit-like, within his shell, and she had a suspicion that behind this barricade he was laughing at her for her ineffectual attempts to dig him out of it with a pin.