“It was cabled to their London edition--that’s what it said in the paper; and by this time they must have it in Australia,” said Miss Hernshaw, with unrelieved severity.
“Oh!” said Hewson, giving himself time to realize that he was the psychical hero of two hemispheres. “Well,” he resumed “what do you expect me to say?”
“I don’t know what I expect. I expected you to say something without my prompting you. You know that it was outrageous for me to talk about your apparition without your leave, and to be the means of its getting into the newspapers.”
“I’m not sure you were the means. I have told the story a hundred times, myself.”
“But that doesn’t excuse me. You knew the kind of people to tell it to, and I didn’t.”
“Oh, I am afraid I was willing to tell it to all kinds of people--to any kind that would listen.”
“You are trying to evade me, Mr. Hewson,” she said, with a severity he found charming. “I didn’t expect that of you.”
The appeal was not lost upon Hewson. “What do you want me to say?”
“I want you,” said Miss Hernshaw, with an effect of giving him another trial, “to say--to acknowledge that you were terribly annoyed by that interview.”
“If you will excuse me from attaching the slightest blame to you for it, I will acknowledge that I was annoyed.”