like that. I remembered that you had been rather a
touchy little boy----"

"I was thinking of your friends. Howard, for instance."

"Why, do you know Howard?"

"By sight."

"If you've never even spoken to him you can't, of course, tell what he
would have felt. Do you mind walking home with me? I don't live far
from here, and we can talk better."

He held his ground, obstinate and defiant. It was unjust that anyone,
knowing himself to be brilliantly clever, should yet be made an oaf by an
incident so trivial.

"I'm sorry. I don't see what we can have to talk about. I'm not keen on
childish recollections. I haven't time for them. And it's fairly
obvious we don't move in the same set and are not likely to meet again."
He burst out rudely. "I suppose you were just curious----"

"Of course. You'd be curious if you found me selling flowers in
Piccadilly. You'd come up and say: 'allo! Francey, what have you been
doing with yourself?' And you'd have tried to give me a leg up, if it
only ran to buying a gardenia for old times' sake."

He suspected her of poking fun at him. And yet there was that subtle
underlying seriousness about her and a frank, disarming kindliness.

"You think I'm down on my luck," he retorted, "and so anybody has a right
to butt in."

"Not a right. Of course, if I'd met you in Bond Street, all sleek and
polished, I shouldn't have dreamed of butting in. I should have said to
myself, 'Well, that's the end of the little Robert Stonehouse saga as far
as I'm concerned,' and I don't suppose I should ever have thought of you
again. But now I shall have to go on thinking--and wondering what
happened--and worrying." She drew her cloak closer about her like a bird
folding its wings, and added prosaically: "I say, don't you find it
rather cold standing about here?"

He turned with her and walked on sullenly, his head down to the wind. He
thought: "I shall tell her nothing at all." But to his astonishment she
was silent, and finally he had to speak himself.

"I'm afraid this silly business has broken up your party. Or was it
getting too lively for you? Howard's beanos used to have a considerable
reputation."

"He often seems drunk when he isn't," she returned tranquilly. "I think
it's because he enjoys things more than most people are able to. It
wasn't that. I wanted to see you so much, and I knew Brown's would be
closing about now. So I sent them to a theatre. It seemed th