"That is bad manners! ... But I like you and your wife and Christine and Jack."
"All of us?"
"Unreservedly—except in your case."
"What's the matter with me?" he asked grimly.
"Why, I don't know you very well," she said, "so how can——"
"Come and talk it over," he said.
They resumed the descent of the stairway together, and, side by side, walked out to a seat on the terrace overlooking the river.
"Sit down, ma'am," he said, dusting the marble bench with his drab-colored soft hat. She seated herself with decorum, inwardly amused. He dusted a place for himself, and sat down beside her.
"Now," he said, "what's the matter with me, Miss Tennant?"
She laughed deliciously. "Nothing that I have ever discovered."