"You don't know her as I do, that's all. She is 'Mary, Mary, quite contrairy.'"
I ignored Jim and turned to the Young Man.
"And why did you need the press-gang to make you come and help this nice hard-working kind of an afternoon?"
Then the reason for the east wind became clear.
"I could hardly flatter myself you really wanted me. I have not seen you, not been in the garden, I mean, for five days."
"Oh! but whose fault is that?" I asked mildly, for the heinousness of the omission did not startle me.
The Young Man straightened up all his six foot and looked tragic.
"I offered to come last Thursday, you may remember, and I was told, most politely, that I need not trouble myself."
"Now really that is scarcely fair! I only said, I know I said how kind you were, but that you ought not to work too hard, and that, I remember I said quite a number of nice and considerate things."