It tore his heart that she should use his name. To hear her say it had always been like a caress, and the word on her lips brought back once more the whole agony of his distress; but he would not allow his emotion to be seen. He turned round and faced her gravely. Now, for the first time, he did not hesitate to look at her. And while he spoke the words he set himself to speak, he noticed the exquisite oval of her face, her charming, soft hair, and her unhappy eyes.
'You see, Dick is married, and so I'm much best out of the way. When a man takes a wife, his bachelor friends are wise to depart from his life, gracefully, before he shows them that he needs their company no longer.'
'And besides Dick?'
'I have few friends and no relations. I can't flatter myself that anyone will be much distressed at my departure.'
'You must have no heart at all,' she said, in a low, hoarse voice.
He clenched his teeth. He was bitterly angry with Julia because she had exposed him to this unspeakable torture.
'If I had I certainly should not bring it to the Carlton Hotel. That sentimental organ would be surely out of place in such a neighbourhood.'
Lucy sprang to her feet.
'Oh, why do you treat me as if we were strangers? How can you be so cruel?'
'Flippancy is often the only refuge from an uncomfortable position,' he answered gravely. 'We should really be much wiser merely to discuss the weather.'