‘Help me?—How?’
‘By letting you have the money for your South American experiment;—it would be an investment on which I should expect to receive good interest.’
I fidgeted.
‘It is very good of you, Miss Grayling, to talk like that.’
She became quite frigid.
‘Please don’t be absurd!—I perceive quite clearly that you are snubbing me, and that you are trying to do it as delicately as you know how.’
‘Miss Grayling!’
‘I understand that it was an impertinence on my part to volunteer assistance which was unasked; you have made that sufficiently plain.’
‘I assure you—’
‘Pray don’t. Of course, if it had been Miss Lindon it would have been different; she would at least have received a civil answer. But we are not all Miss Lindon.’