Kate looked at him, her gray eyes very doubtful, and did not at once answer. He had clearly made up his mind to join his fortunes to theirs, while she, on her side, had reasons for shrinking from intimacy with him. But he seemed to consider it so much a matter of course that they should remain together and travel together, that she scarcely saw how to put things on a different footing. She knew, too, that she would get no help from Daintry, who already regarded their detention in the light of a capital joke.
“What are you going to do yourself, Mr. Lindo?” she said at last, her manner rather chilling.
He opened his eyes and smiled. “You discard me, then?” he said. “You have lost all faith in me, Miss Bonamy? Well, I deserve it after the scrape into which I have led you.”
“I did not mean that,” she answered. “I wished to know if you had made any plans.”
“Yes,” he replied—“to make amends, if you will let me take command of the party. We will stay in Oxford, and I will show you round the colleges.”
“No?” exclaimed Daintry. “Will you? How jolly! And then?”
“We will dine at the Mitre,” he answered, smiling, “if Miss Bonamy will permit me to manage everything. And then, if you leave here at nine-thirty to-morrow you will be at Claversham soon after twelve. Will that suit you?”
Daintry’s face answered sufficiently for her. As for Kate, she was in a difficulty. She knew little of hotels: yet they must stop somewhere, and no doubt Mr. Lindo would take a great deal of trouble off her hands. But would it be proper to do as he proposed? She really did not know—only that it sounded odd. That it would not be wise she knew. She could answer that question at once. But how could she explain, and how tell him to go his way and leave them? And, after all, to see Oxford would be delightful; and he really was very pleasant, very different from the men she knew at home.
“You are very good,” she said at length, with a grateful sigh—“if we have no choice but between Oxford and Birmingham.”
“And no choice of guides at all,” he said, smiling, “you will take me.”