She explained to him lightly as he shook hands with Mrs. Pomeroy and her daughter, and then with another farewell and a pretty, affectionate “Au revoir!” to Julian, she turned away with him.
He put her into her carriage and she held out her hand with a gesture of thanks and farewell.
“Thanks,” she said; her tone and manner alike were very friendly and familiar in the exaggerated style which had certainly grown on her; and they seemed to imply something beyond the superficial interest to which she had kept, perforce, in her society intercourse with him. “It is so pleasant to see you again! When will you come to see me quietly? Before you are hard at work, you know! To-morrow, now? To-morrow happens to be a free day with me. Come to tea. Good bye!”
CHAPTER XII
Ten minutes after Mrs. Romayne’s departure Julian was standing before Mrs. Pomeroy, his whole demeanour typical of the man who lingers, knowing that he should linger no longer.
“What a nuisance appointments are!” he said, with a boyish frankness of discontent which was irresistible. “I wish I could stay a little longer, but I know I oughtn’t.” He laughed quite ruefully, and fixed a pair of ardent eyes on Miss Pomeroy’s demurely averted face. “It’s been such an awfully jolly affair, hasn’t it? And it’s so awfully jolly to have you in town again”—this, with delightful deference, to Mrs. Pomeroy. “Well, I really must go, you know! Good-bye! Perhaps you won’t be staying very much longer?”
“If you stay here bemoaning yourself very much longer we shall probably leave before you do!” suggested Miss Pomeroy, with the rather faint smile which was the only sign of amusement she ever gave, and which always accompanied her own mild witticisms. Julian turned to her eagerly.
“Now, that’s awfully unkind!” he said. “You won’t bully me like that in Queen Anne Street, will you?” The term “bullying” was so profoundly inapplicable to Miss Pomeroy’s words that its use suggested a certain amount of arrangement rather than absolute spontaneity about Julian’s speech. But exaggeration was the fashion, and not to be commented on. “Come in a very kind frame of mind, won’t you?” he went on pleadingly.
“Am I a very violent person?” the girl answered, with the same smile. “Good-bye!” She held out her hand as she spoke, and Julian took it with laughing reluctance.
“You are an absolutely heartless person,” he said daringly, “to dismiss me like this! However, I suppose you are right. If you didn’t dismiss me I probably shouldn’t go, and I really ought, you know!”