"Because I don't care for it."
"I suppose you're tired of me."
"I shall be an hour hence. You see I have the gift of
foreknowledge."
"Oh, I shall be delightful meanwhile," said Ralph. But he said
nothing more, and as she made no rejoinder they sat sometime in a
stillness which seemed to contradict his promise of entertainment.
It seemed to him she was preoccupied, and he wondered what she was
thinking about; there were two or three very possible subjects. At
last he spoke again. "Is your objection to my society this evening
caused by your expectation of another visitor?"
She turned her head with a glance of her clear, fair eyes.
"Another visitor? What visitor should I have?"
He had none to suggest; which made his question seem to himself
silly as well as brutal. "You've a great many friends that I don't
know. You've a whole past from which I was perversely excluded."
"You were reserved for my future. You must remember that my past
is over there across the water. There's none of it here in London."
"Very good, then, since your future is seated beside you. Capital
thing to have your future so handy." And Ralph lighted another
cigarette and reflected that Isabel probably meant she had received
news that Mr.
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