"I called Nanda in because I wanted to." "Precisely; but what I don't make out, you see, is what you've since gained by it." "You mean she only hates me the more ?" Van's impatience, in the movement with which he turned from her, had a flare still sharper.

"You know I'm incapable of meaning anything of the sort." She waited a minute while his back was presented.

"I sometimes think in effect that you're incapable of anything straightforward." Vanderbank's movement had not been to the door, but he almost reached it after giving her, on this, a hard look.

He then stopped short, however, to stare an instant still more fixedly into the hat he held in his hand; the consequence of which in turn was that he the next minute stood again before her chair.

"Don't you call it straightforward of me just not to have come for so long ?" She had again to take time to say.