"So Fenton's sense of duty is still in good working order," he observed.
With a little impatient gesture Nancy brushed aside a stray curl.
"I was very annoyed at his coming down here," she said. "If I'd thought for a moment that he was going to do a thing like that I shouldn't have given him my address."
Colin took up his old position on the fire-guard and looked thoughtfully into her indignant blue eyes.
"What did he want, Nancy?" he asked.
"Oh, it was only to invite me to dine and go to a theatre with him on Wednesday. Of course, he could just as well have written to me or rung me up on the telephone."
"And did you accept?"
Nancy shrugged her shoulders. "I couldn't very well help it. He asked me while we were at lunch, and I didn't like to say I was engaged, because Doctor Ashton would have known it was untrue."
"Otherwise you would have refused him?"
Nancy nodded. "It may seem ungrateful, but as a matter of fact I don't want to see Major Fenton again. I never liked him very much, and the last time I was with him he——" She hesitated. "Oh, well, he was different in a way, and, to put it quite plainly, I liked him even less. Besides, I haven't forgotten the horrid things he said about you."