'You will have a grand clearing away again, if you do. Then you really are glad, Mr. Rollo?'
'You do not mean to say that you will pull up what I plant?'
'I said you would. See,' she said, not ready for repartee or discussion or much of anything else to-night, 'you have cut short your allowance of sugar, and quite prevented the cream. Give me the sugar tongs, please.'
Divining that it was in some sort a help to her, he quietly let her have her way; and did not tell her how fully creamed and sugared he tasted his cup to be that night.
'I have learnt a lesson,' he drily said after he had watched her. 'Whenever I want to give you anything, I shall know henceforth that you would like nothing so well as power.'
She smiled a little bit, looking down at her folded hands, but she did not say a word. And Dane drank his coffee, for form's sake, without knowing whether there was either sugar or cream in it. And then he took Wych Hazel away from the table, and talked of things as far as possible from weddings and journeyings; till Arthur came again.
Dr. Arthur did not come in. But when his friend, in obedience to the summons, had reached the door of the red room, his progress was stayed.
'Mr. Rollo,'came falteringly from the grave figure he had left standing by the fire,'could you stop one minute?'
It is needless to say that Rollo's steps paused and came back instantly.
'Nobody to speak but me, nobody to consult but him!' the girl thought as he approached her. It was rather hard, just now. But things had to be done.