"Mr. Cardemon, if you please, I very much prefer to return in my own way."
"What an obstinate girl you are!" he said, with his uncertain laugh, which never came until he had prejudged its effect on the situation; but the puffy flesh above his white riding-stock behind his lobeless ears reddened, and a slow, thickish colour came into his face and remained under the thick skin.
"If you won't let me send you back in a car," he said, "you at least won't refuse a glass of sherry and a biscuit—"
"Thank you—I haven't time—"
"My housekeeper, Mrs. Munn, is on the premises," he persisted.
"You are very kind, but—"
"Oh, don't turn a man down so mercilessly, Miss West!"
"You are exceedingly amiable," she repeated, "but I must go at once."
He switched the weeds with his crop, then the uncertain laugh came:
"I'll show you a short cut," he said. His prominent eyes rested on her, passed over her from head to foot, then wandered askance over the young woodland.