“She is four inches taller than I am,” I snapped. “And if he was as big as a gum-tree, he would be a man all the same, and just as soft on a pretty face as all the rest of them.”
I bathed, dressed, arranged my hair, got something ready for tea, and prepared a room for our visitor. For this I collected from all parts of the house—a mat from one room, a toilet-set from another, and so on—till I had quite an elaborately furnished chamber ready for my one-time lover.
They returned at dusk, Rory again seated on Harold’s shoulder, and two of the little boys clinging around him.
As I conducted him to his room I was in a different humour from that of the sweep-like object who had met him during the afternoon. I laughed to myself, for, as on a former occasion during our acquaintance, I felt I was master of the situation.
“I say, Syb, don’t treat a fellow as though he was altogether a stranger,” he said diffidently, leaning against the door-post.
Our hands met in a cordial grasp as I said, “I’m awfully glad to see you, Hal; but, but——”
“But what?”
“I didn’t feel over delighted to be caught in such a stew this afternoon.”
“Nonsense! It only reminded me of the first time we met,” he said with a twinkle in his eye. “That’s always the way with you girls. You can’t be civil to a man unless you’re dressed up fit to stun him, as though you couldn’t make fool enough of him without the aid of clothes at all.”
“You’d better shut up,” I said over my shoulder as I departed, “or you will be saying something better left unsaid, like at our first meeting. Do you remember?”