He bowed ceremoniously:
"Would you be kind enough?"
"Will you not enter?"
"I thank you. If I may be permitted to remain here——" He had kept continually glancing up and down the road while speaking; and it was evident that he preferred to remain where he could watch the highway both ways.
So Sister Eila brought the letter to him, and he bowed again with tight-waisted ceremony, pocketed it, and asked again for the packet.
"Wait, if you please," she said. "The letter was to be read in my presence."
"A thousand pardons! I had not understood——"
He drew the sheets of paper from the unsealed envelope, glanced sharply up and down the highroad, then unfolded the letter.
Sister Eila's eyes were fixed on his face, but his features exhibited no emotion whatever.
Every few moments he looked up and down the road, then bent his pleasantly expressionless face again over the sheets in his gloved hands.