“Mr. Clarke!” cried Dido, in amazement. “Why that is Tolman Bike!”
CHAPTER XIII.
A LOVERS’ QUARREL.
“Why!” as if unpleasantly surprised at his visit, “how do you do?”
Such was Penelope Howard’s greeting to Richard Treadwell the morning following the meeting in the Eden Musée. He could not stay away from her, so he decided to try to explain all about Dido. He wished now he had not been so anxious to keep the affair a secret until Penelope’s return. It made things look all the blacker for him.
Penelope was a clever girl. She was bitterly hurt, but she had no intention of quarreling with Dick. If she experienced any jealous pangs he should not have the satisfaction of knowing it. She would merely maintain a cold indifference and make him feel that, do as he pleased, it was nothing to her. She would smile, but indifferently, and not with the smile of affection with which she had always greeted him. She would treat him in a manner that would show her displeasure and utter lack of affection for him, but she would not quarrel and so give him a chance to offer an apology or explanation.
“You don’t seem very glad to see me?” Dick ventured, with a forced smile.
Penelope looked with well assumed amazement and surprise at his audacity, and, raising her eyebrows, said with a slightly rising inflection, “No?”
Richard felt very ill at ease.
“You don’t understand,” he continued, helplessly. “I hope at least you will allow me to explain the scene which you witnessed last night.”
She said, with a cold smile: “Really, you must excuse me. I have no right or desire to know anything about your personal affairs.”