LIFE ON A CHAIN "Oh, I say, are you going out ?" said Piers.

"I was just coming to call on you." "On me ?" Avery looked at him with brows raised in surprised interrogation.
He made her a graceful bow, nearly sweeping the path outside the Vicarage gate with his cap.

"Even so, madam! On you! But as I perceive you are not at home to callers, may I be permitted to turn and walk beside you ?" As he suited the action to the words, it seemed superfluous to grant the permission, and Avery did not do so.
"I am only going to run quickly down to the post," she said, with a glance at some letters she carried.
He might have offered to post them for her, but such a course did not apparently occur to him.

Instead he said: "I'll race you if you like." Avery refrained from smiling, conscious of a gay glance flung in her direction.
"I see you prefer to walk circumspectly," said Piers.

"Well, I can do that too.