“By Jove! she must be awfully struck!” he thought, gleefully. “I do believe she is actually making love to me. I am not particularly inclined to matrimony, but a subrosa liaison with a beauty like this would vary my life very pleasantly. I mean to go in for a little fun, and if this young lady is fool enough to throw herself into my arms, why—it’s her look out, not mine. I can easily clear, whenever I want to back out of it.”
After this Mr. Staines would fain have continued talking to Una. But she, apparently of an impulsive nature, suddenly announced that she had work to do in her own room, and would not remain with him any longer. He, emboldened by her complaisant behaviour, eagerly sought to detain her awhile longer, and even grasped her right hand between both his own, as he pleaded for a little more time with her. As soon as she felt him touch her, Una turned her face from him, shuddering violently in an agony of repulsion, and Briny sprang to his feet, growling in a threatening manner.
“Be quiet, Briny,” said Una; “don’t you know a friend when you see one?”
Of course, Mr. Staines took the reproof administered to Briny as a direct compliment to himself. He also mistook Una’s shudder for a thrill of delight invoked by the contact between his hand and hers, and congratulated himself triumphantly upon the easy conquest he had made. Indeed, so sure of his ground did he feel that he resisted the girl’s attempt to withdraw her hand, squeezed it tenderly, and whispered confidentially, “We can have a chat this afternoon, cannot we, Miss Stratton?”
Miss Stratton’s reply was such a languishing and apparently love-stricken look that, but for the threatening attitude of Briny, who evidently did not like him, he would there and then have attempted to kiss her.
“Will you come out for a walk this afternoon?” he asked. “It will not do to let these people see too much, I suppose. I can meet you at the end of the street, and will show you the sights of the neighbourhood. Say, will you come?”
“At what time?”
“Will three o’clock suit you?”
“There, I hear the landlady coming. She mustn’t see you squeezing my hand.”
“By Jove, no. She might be jealous, eh! At three o’clock, then?”