"
"Not till Miss Mavis is tired of me."
She said nothing to this and I made her walk again. For some minutes she
failed to speak; then, rather abruptly, she began: "I've seen you talking
to that lady who sits at our table--the one who has so many children."
"Mrs. Peck? Oh yes, one has inevitably talked with Mrs. Peck."
"Do you know her very well?"
"Only as one knows people at sea. An acquaintance makes itself. It
doesn't mean very much."
"She doesn't speak to me--she might if she wanted."
"That's just what she says of you--that you might speak to her."
"Oh if she's waiting for that!" said my companion with a laugh. Then she
added: "She lives in our street, nearly opposite."
"Precisely. That's the reason why she thinks you coy or haughty. She
has seen you so often and seems to know so much about you."
"What does she know about me?"
"Ah you must ask her--I can't tell you!"
"I don't care what she knows," said my young lady. After a moment she
went on: "She must have seen I ain't very sociable." And then, "What are
you laughing at?" she asked.
"Well"--my amusement was difficult to explain--"you're not very sociable,
and yet somehow you are. Mrs. Peck is, at any rate, and thought that
ought to make it easy for you to enter into conversation with her.
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