"I wonder," she said, "what would happen if he walked in here at this very moment."
Rodney also wondered, for a second, in silence.
"For one thing, he'd spoil our evening, because he'd start you straight away off home."
"Would he? I should take some starting. I never am particularly afraid of him, and I'm not in the least when I've had two glasses of Montebello--rattling good bottle, this is. Thank you; that's the third. What beats me is why you're afraid of him. You don't strike me as being a person who's afraid of much. What would it matter if he did give you the key of the street, so far as his office is concerned? You'd easily find a better one. There's a mystery somewhere. Don't imagine, my dear old man, that I don't know so much. Why has he such an objection to you? And why are you so much in awe of him? Now's your time--out with it. Make a clean breast of it--between this glass and the next."
class="normal""I can't tell you why he objects to me, but I can assure you that I don't stand in awe of him."
"Rubbish! If you don't, why have you kept away from me in the way you have done?--you exasperating boy! I console myself with the reflection that if I'm losing your society you're losing mine; because I'll bet a trifle that you're just as fond of seeing me every other day or so as I am of seeing you."
"You're right there. If I saw you all day and every day I shouldn't mind."
"I'm not so sure of that; there's a limit. It might be all right for a time; but, my hat! wouldn't you get bored after a month of nothing else but my society!"
"What price you--after a month of nothing else but me?"
She seemed to reflect before she answered.