Later, when Michael had left, Sir Ralph was to find her a very unamusing companion, though why she should be annoyed with her sometime suitor only a woman can understand. She did not love him. In some ways she rather disliked him, and possibly the underlying reason for her inviting him at all, was in order to confirm and seal her indifference. If Michael had been in the least way attentive, had shown the slightest desire to recover the lost ground and to resume the old romance, she would have found an intense satisfaction in checking him and would have gone to bed that night happy in the knowledge that she had permanently attached to her one for whom she had not the slightest tenderness. This is the way of women who, when offered a dish, a dress, a colour, a material or a man, invariably say, “I would like to see something else.” Her abstraction was so marked that Sir Ralph thought she was ill, which instantly produced that headache which it is every woman’s privilege to adopt at a moment’s notice. “You ought to take care of Moya, Flanborough,” he said to his host at parting, “she’s not at all well.” “I have noticed it,” said the dutiful parent who had noticed nothing of the kind and had inwardly remarked that Moya was sulking about something. “You have an extraordinary eye for things of that kind, Sir Ralph.” “I understand human beings,” admitted Sir Ralph, “it has been my one engrossing study in life. It is almost a vice with me. When a man comes into my office I can generally sum up his character, his business and his capabilities before he has opened his mouth.” “It’s a great gift,” said Lord Flanborough solemnly. Sir Ralph Sapson was in a particularly cheerful mood that night. In the brief interview which he had had with his future father-in-law he had not only secured a tacit agreement of his right to be admitted to the family and an expression of Lord Flanborough’s approval, but he had clinched a very excellent business arrangement which had been hanging fire for twelve months--an arrangement which may be briefly summarized: Lord Flanborough was the chairman of the Austral-African Steamship Company which carried merchandise and passengers between Cape Town and Plymouth. Sir Ralph was the chairman of the London and Seahampton Railway and was also chairman and a large shareholder in the Seahampton Dock Improvement Company. The docks had improved much more rapidly than had the trade which could justify their existence and the deal which was really a side-line to the more romantic business of a matrimonial alliance, was that the ships of the A-A line should shamelessly abandon Plymouth and Liverpool and should have their headquarters at Seahampton, an arrangement which offered advantages on both sides, since Lord Flanborough was not without interest in the Seahampton docks.