Page:Herbert Jenkins - The Rain Girl.djvu/162

 "Well, you may come into the garden and sit down," she said leading the way.

Beresford followed, conscious that every head in sight, male and female, was turned as she passed. Entering the hotel gardens, she led the way to a seat shaded by a large elm. For several minutes they sat silent. At the other side of the lawn two girls and a man were playing an indolent game of croquet. The tap-tap of the balls seemed to add to the languor of the day. Beresford sighed his content. Of course it was all a dream; but even from a dream it was possible to extract a passing pleasure.

"You know I got pneumonia," he said casually, conscious that as a conversational opening it bordered on the abrupt.

"Please tell me," she said, turning towards him. "I'm so sorry."

He then explained how his stay at "The Two Dragons" had been protracted from a single night into six weeks. He told of Tallis and the landlord, touched on the grim irony of fate and finally added—

"But what worried me most was that you should think I had" then he stopped suddenly, conscious of his tactlessness in referring to the implied appointment made that evening in the smoking-room.

"I wondered what had happened," she said, looking straight in front of her. "I never thought—that you might be ill."

"Then you must have thought I had forgotten."