“Oh, no surmise at all. I speak of what I know.”
“And so do I.” And yet again she repeated: “Una will be waiting for you.”
He sighed, and stiffened slightly. “Of course if you insist,” said he, and made ready to reconduct her.
She swung round as if to go, but checked, and looked him frankly in the eyes.
“Why will you for ever be misunderstanding me?” she challenged him.
“Perhaps it is the inevitable result of my overanxiety to understand.”
“Then begin by taking me more literally, and do not read into my words more meaning than I intend to give them. When I say Una is waiting for you, I state a simple fact, not a command that you shall go to her. Indeed I want first to talk to you.”
“If I might take you literally now—”
“Should I have suffered you to bring me here if I did not?”
“I beg your pardon,” he said, contrite, and something shaken out of his imperturbability. “Sylvia,” he ventured very boldly, and there checked, so terrified as to be a shame to his brave scarlet, gold-laced uniform.