"You don't sound altogether pleased at the
discovery."
"Pleased?" His eyes rested on her with a species of repressed annoyance.
"It doesn't make much difference whether we're--either of us--pleased or
not, does it?"
His meaning appeared perfectly plain to Ann. For some reason which she
could not fathom he found her appearance on the scene the very reverse of
pleasing.
"I don't see that it matters in any case," she replied frostily. "The fact
that I happen to be your agent's sister doesn't compel you to see any more
of me than you wish to."
"True. And if I'd known you were here I wouldn't have come blundering in
this morning."
"I arrived yesterday," vouchsafed Ann. "Won't you sit down?" she added with
perfunctory politeness. She seated herself, and in obedience to her gesture
he mechanically followed suit.
"Yes, you were expected to-day, weren't you? I'd forgotten," he said
abstractedly.
No one particularly enjoys being assured that they have been forgotten, and
Ann's eyes sparkled with suppressed indignation.
"Can I give my brother any message for you?" she asked stiffly.
All at once he smiled--that sudden, singularly sweet smile of his which
transformed the harsh lines of his face and which seemed to have so little
in common with his habitual brusqueness.
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