Page:Herbert Jenkins - The Rain Girl.djvu/161

 "I knew it must be you," he said. "Thank you so much for all you have done," then he added hastily, "I'm better; but I don't think I'm quite well enough to dispense with the services of a nurse."

She flashed him a look from under her lashes, then she laughed, that same gurgling little laugh that had so fascinated him in the smoking-room of "The Two Dragons."

"Do you think I'm strong enough to be taken for a walk?" he asked, "or had I better have a bath-chair? Of course, I should gain more sympathy in a bath-chair, with you walking beside it," he added whimsically.

"But I'm not going to walk beside your bath-chair," she said, obviously a little puzzled at his mood.

"Then I'm afraid it will have to be a walk. Please continue your good work," he added as he saw her hesitate. "I want to explain things to you and—and I promise I won't be a nuisance if you will give me half an hour."

"I wasn't thinking of your being a nuisance," she said, "only that" she hesitated.

"But you do," said Beresford.

"Do what?" she enquired, looking up at him in surprise.

"Know me."

"How clever of you to anticipate my thoughts."

"That's always a woman's thought when she hesitates on the brink of the unconventional."