"I'm delighted you found the time too long——"
"I did not say so! If you think it was short I shall warn Jim Wycherly how time flies with you and Molly.... Oh, dear! Is that a mosquito?"
"I'm afraid it is," said Quarren.
"Then indoors I go!" exclaimed Strelsa indignantly. "You may come with me or remain out here and be slowly assassinated."
And she went in, rather hastily, calling to him to close the screen door.
Quarren glanced around the deserted drawing-room. Through the bay-window late afternoon sunlight poured flooding the room with a ruddy glory.
"I wonder if there's enough of this celestial radiance to make a new aureole for you?" he said.
"So my old one is worn out, is it?"
"I meant to offer you a double halo."
"You do say sweet things—for a rather obstinate young man," she said, flashing a laughing side glance at him. Then she walked slowly through the sunshine into the dimmer music-room, and found a seat at the piano. Her mood changed; she became gay, capricious, even a trifle imperative: