He glanced at his watch and rose regretfully to his feet.
"I am afraid," he said, as he led the way towards the exit, "that I must go back to work.

Thank you so much for coming and taking pity upon a lonely man, Miss Lane." "You can have all that sort of pity you like," she whispered.
"Then I shall certainly make demands upon it," he assured her, as they parted at the door.
He found himself presently back in the cool and pleasantly austere surroundings of his sitting room and threw himself into an easy-chair drawn up in front of the wide-flung windows.

A strong breeze, against which a flight of seagulls leaned, was stirring the trees in the Embankment Gardens and ruffling the surface of the water.

The pall of smoke eastward seemed here and there cloven by a wind-swept avenue of clearer spaces.

He felt a sudden and passionate distaste for his recent environment,--the faint perfume which had crept out from the girl's hair and face as she had leaned towards him, the brushing of her clothes against his, the daring exposure of silk stocking, the continual flirtatious appeal of her eyes and lips.