She was slowly turning down her sleeves, and, ignoring his remark, said, with a question in her tones:
"Nettie Wallace says that Willie Prime says that everybody says that you"re going to marry that girl."
"I believe it"s quite true."
"Oh!" and she looked across the Pool.
"True that everybody says so," added Charlie. "Why do you turn down your sleeves?"
"How funny I must have looked, sprawling on the bank like that!" she remarked.
"Awful!" said Charlie, sitting down.
She looked at him with uneasiness in her eye.
"Nothing but an ankle, I swear," he answered.
She blushed and smiled.
"I think you should whistle, or something, as you come."
"Not I," said Charlie, with decision.
Suddenly she turned to him with a serious face, or one that tried to be serious.
"Why do you come?" she asked.
"Why do I eat?" he returned.
"And yet you were angry the first time."
"n.o.body likes to be caught ranting out poetry especially his own."
"I believe you were frightened--you thought I was Agatha. The poetry was about her, wasn"t it?"
"It"s not at all a bad poem," observed Charlie.
"You remember I liked it so much that I clapped my hands."
"And I jumped!"
The girl laughed.
"Ah, well," she said, "it"s time to go home."
"Oh, dear, no," said Charlie!
"But I"ve promised to be early, because Willie Prime"s coming, and I"m to be introduced to him."
"Willie Prime can wait. He"s got Miss Wallace to comfort him, and I"ve got n.o.body to comfort me."
"Oh, yes. Miss Bush.e.l.l."
"You know her name?"
"Yes--and yours--your surname, I mean; you told me the other."
"That"s more than you"ve done for me."
"I told you my name was Agatha."
"Ah, but that was a joke. I"d been talking about Agatha Merceron."
"Very well. I"m sorry it doesn"t satisfy you. If you won"t believe me--!"
"But your surname?"
"Oh, mine? Why, mine"s Brown."
"Brown!" re-echoed Charlie, with a tinge of disappointment in his tone.
"Don"t you like it?" asked Miss Agatha Brown with a smile.
"Oh, it will do for the present," laughed Charlie.
"Well, I don"t mean to keep it all my life. I"ve spent to-day, Mr.
Merceron, in spying out your house. Nettie Wallace and I ventured quite near. It"s very pretty."
"Rather dilapidated, I"m afraid."
"What"s the time, Mr. Merceron?"
"Half-past six. Oh, by Jove!"
"Well? Afraid of seeing poor Agatha?"
"I should see n.o.body but you, if you were here. No. I forgot that.
I"ve got to meet someone at the station at a quarter-past seven."
"Oh, do tell me who?"
"You"d be none the wiser. It"s a Mr. Victor Sutton."
"Victor Sutton!" she exclaimed, with a glance at Charlie which pa.s.sed unnoticed by him. "Is he a friend of yours?"
"I suppose so. Of my family"s, anyhow."
"Good-by. I"m going," she announced.