"I'm sorry too."
"What are you doing this afternoon, around tea time?"
"I have an engagement," he said truthfully.
"With Emma Fornez?"
"Yes."
"I am not very lucky, am I?" she said.
The wounded tone in her voice made him feel a bit ashamed. He saw that she would not ask him again and relented a little.
"Will you be in at four? I can drop in for a little chat then," he said, amazed at his own yielding even as he spoke the words.
"Come then. I want very much to see you," she answered but without lightness.
"Now I'm in it again!" he said ruefully as he left the telephone. "What the deuce made me say I'd go. Just because I didn't want to hurt her—O Lord! Steady, old boy, steady!"