She was looking full into his eyes and yet he could not tell whether she was angry with him or only amused.
"You were by way of being a little melodramatic, were you not ?" she remarked.

"Still, you were very much in earnest, and one forgives a great deal to any one who is really in earnest.

What do you want with me now?
I am just going downstairs to supper." "It is a matter of business," Tavernake replied.

"I have a friend who is a partner with me in the Marston Rise building speculation, and he is worried because there is some one else in the field wanting to buy the property, and the day after to-morrow is our last chance of paying over the money." She looked at him as though puzzled.
"What money ?" "The money which you agreed to lend me, or rather to invest in our building company," he reminded her.
She nodded.
"Of course! Why, I had forgotten all about it for the moment.

You are going to give me ten per cent interest or something splendid, aren't you?
Well, what about it?
You don't want to take it away with you now, I suppose ?" "No," he answered, "it isn't that.