"I've added a sprained ankle to my other disabilities," he continued cheerfully.

"Hence my apparent laziness." Sara commiserated appropriately.
"How did you manage to get here ?" she asked.
Miles gestured towards Trent.
"This man maintained that it was bad for my mental and moral health to brood alone at home while Lavinia went skipping off into society unchaperoned.

So he fetched me along in his car." Sara's eyes rested thoughtfully on Trent's face a moment.
It was odd how kindly and considerate he always showed himself towards Miles Herrick.

Perhaps somewhere within him a responsive chord was touched by the evidence of the other man's broken life.
"Miss Tennant is thinking that it's a case of the blind leading the blind for me to act as a cicerone into society," remarked Trent curtly.
Sara winced at the repellent hardness of his tone, but she declined to take up the challenge.
"I am very glad you persuaded Miles to come over," was all she said.
Trent's lips closed in a straight line.

It seemed as though he were trying to resist the appeal of her gently given answer; and Miles, conscious of the antagonism in the atmosphere, interposed with some commonplace question concerning her visit to London.
"You're looking thinner than you were, Sara," he added critically.
She flushed a little as she felt Trent's hawk-like glance sweep over her.
"Oh, I've been leading too gay a life," she said hastily.