"I think I'd better not. I'm waiting here to see them begin to lay the damp course. Thanks all the same."
He looked at his watch. Then turned to her with a gleam in his eye.
"They quit work in an hour, so that reason won't do. Don't you trust me?"
"I have no notion what you mean," said Melicent, instantly frozen.
"Well," he said, "of course I know you despise conventionalities or you would not be following your present profession. When a girl steps down into the arena and joins the wrestling, one takes it for granted that she doesn't mind what folks say. So, if you refuse to let me take you a drive, I have to conclude that your objection is personal, don't I?"
"Then you don't consider it possible that I really may not wish to take a drive this afternoon?"
"Seeing what the weather's been this week, and what it is to-day, and the way you've been sticking to work, I think it's unlikely," he said calmly. He rose. "Pity you won't come," he added. "They're enlarging Arnstock Churchyard, and they've unearthed the head of a Saxon cross." Melicent sprang involuntarily to her feet. He looked at her steadily. "Knot-work," he said firmly. "As clean-cut as if it had been carved last week. They have got several bits. Harland thinks they may find it all. That's what I'm going to see."
She laughed a little uneasily. "I don't believe I can resist that," she said.
"Come along then," he replied coolly, picking up her warm coat from the planks. "There's Alfred to play propriety, you know."
"I don't believe you've ever been to Arnstock," he said, as they bowled lightly along the firm high-road. "You do nothing but stick to work. It isn't good for you."