"Bless my soul!" exclaimed her father, waving his prospective son-in-law to a chair with a pudgy hand. "We thought you were lost in the tall grass. You missed tea, but you're in time for a cocktail. Eleanor is quite cranky if she misses hers."
"Beastly stupid place, don't you think?" Miss Banniman inquired of her sweetheart.
"Um-m! I haven't found it so," Roly said, with a sigh of relief. "Fact is, I've been quite entertained."
"You have such absurd tastes. A dash of absinthe in mine, if you please, waiter. Papa has ordered the car attached to the evening train, and we're dining aboard. What d'you say to Pinehurst and a week of golf?"
Roly felt a sudden distaste for Pinehurst, for golf, for all the places and people he had known. "Lovely!" he managed to say; then, summoning his courage: "I'll join you later, perhaps. Sorry to break up the party, but I've a little business here that will take a day or so."
"Business? You? How funny!" exclaimed Eleanor.
"Too bad!" her father said. "It's blooming hot here, and the flies are awful."
The others joined in commiserating the young man. When they arose to go up-stairs and prepare for the train, Roly fell in behind them with Miss Banniman.
"See here, Eleanor, are you sure you love me?" he asked.
She lifted her brows slightly. "Not at all. What put such an idea into your head? You're a charming boy, even if you are a bit romantic. But love—I thought we understood each other."