“Well, I’d rather you did that than forget me.” She felt him looking hard into her face, with something a little sinister in his expression, and she got up and turned away. “Why do you turn away when I am interested? Don’t you think you might be a little pleased that I don’t want you to forget me?” He asked the question with a humorous twinkle, though she felt that he meant it seriously as well. This last, however, she was clever enough to ignore, and merely threw him a mischievous glance over her shoulder as she answered: “Well, I have to consider Brother Dudley’s attitude, you see; and I’ve a notion he would be best pleased for both the incident and motorist of Sunday evening to be forgotten.” He got up slowly, looking amused. “I suppose he would be horrified at this outing?” “I strongly suspect he would.” “What if he hears you were out motoring at Richmond with me?” “Oh, well, I shall tell him you are old enough to be my father, and not to be absurd.” “Why do you harp on my age so?… If I am old enough to be your father, it doesn’t follow that I’m too old to be your lover?” He was standing close to her now, looking down into her face, and Hal felt a little conscious tremor run through her blood. She faced him squarely, however, and answered in a gay, careless voice: “Of course it doesn’t, only, as I don’t happen to want a lover, it’s a contingency not worth considering.” “Perhaps the post is already filled?” he suggested, refusing likewise to be daunted. “Quite filled. It’s a case for a placard stating ‘House Full’, and you,” she finished, “would naturally be at the tail end of the queue which has to go away.” He laughed with relish, and gave it up. “I can see you will take some taming,” he said, as he handed her into the car. “My weighty and important position evidently does not impress you in the least.” “Of course not, as you’re a Liberal. They have so few really good men, they have to take anything they can get. Back up the Budget and the Chancellor, and exhibit a colossal amount of impudence, and there you are!” “Well, there isn’t much to boast of in the way of men on the Conservative side, is there? Chiefly a collection of cousins, and second-cousins, and cousins by marriage, shoved in by a few interfering old aunts. You don’t need me to tell an enlightened young woman like you that even impudence might serve the country better than cousin-ship.” “I wonder sometimes if any of you honestly put the country first at any time; or whether it is just a popular name for a very big ‘me’?” “You are such a little sceptic. Do you always credit people with self-interested motives?” “I don’t know that I do; but if you are a city-worker it is a fairly safe basis to work upon, until you can find proof that you are wrong.” He looked down at her with amusement. “What a wise little head it is! Do you know, I don’t think I ever met any one quite like you before,”