“I ought not to have said that, just because he’s not the sort of man I care about,” he said stammeringly. “He’s quite all right––it all depends from what point of view you regard him. I hope you will forget that I said that, Miss Shepstone. It––it was unpardonable.”
“It’s a matter of complete indifference to me what you say about––Mr. Ashton,” she told him.
She stopped. They had been walking along together.
“Which way are you going?” she asked.
Micky flushed up to his eyes; he knew this was a dismissal.
“I was coming along to see June,” he said. “I hoped you would allow me to walk along with you––if I am not intruding.”
Esther forced a smile, but her lips felt stiff.
“Oh, but I am not going back,” she said. Her voice sounded as if it were cut in ice. “So I won’t detain you. Good-bye.”
She turned and left him, walking quickly away again in the direction from which she had just come.