"I'll try…. Yes, why not? I do like you, and I admire you tremendously."
His eyes rested on her a moment; he inhaled a deep breath from his cigarette, expelled it, nodded.
"I'll try to win back all your friendship for me," he said, pleasantly.
"That will be easy. I want you to like me. I want to be able to like you…. I shall have need of friends," she said half to herself, and looked across at Neville with a face tranquil, almost expressionless save for the sensitive beauty of the mouth.
After a moment Querida, too, lifted his head and gazed deliberately at
Neville. Then very quietly:
"Are you dining alone this evening?"
"No."
"Oh. Perhaps to-morrow evening, then—"
"I'm afraid not, José."
He smiled: "Not dining alone ever again?"