Page:The Other House (London, William Heinemann, 1896), Volume 1.djvu/129

Rh and for a few seconds, her eyes had rested on his face. She uttered a blushing "Oh!" which deplored this effect of her propinquity and which brought Tony straight to his feet. "Ah, good morning! How'd'ye do?" Everything came back to him but her name. "Excuse my attitude—I didn't hear you come in."

"When I saw you asleep I'm afraid I kept the footman from speaking." Jean Martle was much embarrassed, but it contributed in the happiest way to her animation. "I came in because he told me that Cousin Kate's here."

"Oh yes, she's here—she thought you might arrive. Do sit down," Tony added with his prompt instinct of what, in his own house, was due from a man of some confidence to a girl of none at all. It operated before he could check it, and Jean was as passive to it as if he had tossed her a command; but as soon as she was seated, to obey him, in a high-backed, wide-armed Venetian chair which made a gilded cage for her flutter, and he had again placed himself not in the same position on the sofa opposite, he recalled the request just preferred by Mrs. Beever. He was to send her straight home;