I say, does half-past eight mean a quarter past nine ?' 'No.

It means a quarter past eight, if you like.

Good-bye!' She cut off the communication abruptly, being a little afraid that if she let him go on chattering any longer she might yield and allow him to come at once.

In her solitude she was intensely bored by her own bad temper, and was nearer to making him the 'only exception' than she had often been of late.

She said to herself that he always amused her, but in her heart she was conscious that he was the only man in the world who knew how to flatter her back into a good temper, and would take the trouble to do so.