'No; not now.'
She could not but go on, graceless as it might seem.
'Tell me this,' she importuned with a trembling mouth. 'Does any meeting of yours with a lady at Endelstow Vicarage clash with--any interest you may take in me?'
He started a little. 'It does not,' he said emphatically; and looked into the pupils of her eyes with the confidence that only honesty can give, and even that to youth alone.
The explanation had not come, but a gloom left her. She could not but believe that utterance. Whatever enigma might lie in the shadow on the blind, it was not an enigma of underhand passion.
She turned towards the house, entering it through the conservatory. Stephen went round to the front door. Mr. Swancourt was standing on the step in his slippers. Worm was adjusting a buckle in the harness, and murmuring about his poor head; and everything was ready for Stephen's departure.
'You named August for your visit. August it shall be; that is, if you care for the society of such a fossilized Tory,' said Mr. Swancourt.
Mr. Smith only responded hesitatingly, that he should like to come again.
'You said you would, and you must,' insisted Elfride, coming to the door and speaking under her father's arm.
Whatever reason the youth may have had for not wishing to enter the house as a guest, it no longer predominated. He promised, and bade them adieu, and got into the pony-carriage, which crept up the slope, and bore him out of their sight.
'I never was so much taken with anybody in my life as I am with that young fellow--never! I cannot understand it--can't understand it anyhow,' said Mr. Swancourt quite energetically to himself; and went indoors.