"I'm afraid that I--er--the fact is, I _am_ engaged.
A matter of business.

I wish I could get out of it, but I can't, and--er--I shall have to run off, or I will be late.
Good-bye,--good-bye." Then I mumbled something about hoping to see them again before they left Paris, and escaped, knowing that I had made a horrid mess of my excuses.

Di was laughing at something West said, as I turned away, and though perhaps his remark and her laugh had nothing to do with me, my ears burned, and there was a cold lump of iron, or something that felt like it, where my heart ought to have been.
Now was Lord Robert's time to propose--now, when she believed me faithless and unworthy--if he but knew it.

And I was afraid that he would know it.
I got out into the open air, feeling half-dazed as one of the under porters called me a cab.

I gave the name of a street in the direction, but at some distance from Maxine's, lest ears should hear which ought not to hear: and it was only when we were well away from the hotel that I amended my first instructions.