Thirlwell looked up with an apologetic smile, but his eyes rested on the girl by Mrs. Allott’s side.  Evelyn Grant was young and attractive, but there was something tame about her beauty that harmonized with her character.  Thirlwell had not always recognized this; indeed, when they were younger, he had indulged a romantic tenderness for the girl.  This, however, was long since, and the renewal of their friendship in Canada left him cold.  Evelyn was gracious, and he sometimes thought she had not forgotten his youthful admiration, but she did not feel things much, and he suspected that she had acquiesced in Mrs. Allott’s rather obvious plot because she was too indolent to object.  For all that, he imagined that if he took a bold line she would not repulse him, and by comparison with his poverty Evelyn was rich.  Then he banished the thought with an unconscious frown.

“Oh, well, I suppose it’s our last evening together, and one feels melancholy about that,” he said.

“But I thought you were coming to New York with us,” Mrs. Allott objected.

Evelyn was talking animatedly to a young American, but looked round with languid carelessness.

“Are you really not coming, Jim?” she asked.

Then, without waiting for Thirlwell’s answer, she resumed her talk, and Mrs. Allott wondered whether the girl had not overdone her part.  After all, she must have known why she had been brought.

“I think not,” said Thirlwell.  “Very sorry, of course, but there’s only a week of my holiday left and I have some business in South Ontario.  Then I must go back to the bush.”

“That’s ridiculous, Jim,” Mrs. Allott rejoined.  “You know you needn’t go back to the bush at all.  Besides, we hoped you had decided to come to England.”  She paused and touched Evelyn.  “Do you hear what he says?  Can’t you persuade him to be sensible?”

Evelyn turned and looked at Thirlwell with a careless smile.  She was very composed, but Mrs. Allott thought she noted a trace of heightened color.

“Oh, no; it would be useless for me to try.  Nobody could persuade Jim to do what he does not want.”

“Aren’t you taking something for granted?” asked Allott, who sat with the others, but had been silent.  “Jim hasn’t admitted that he doesn’t want to come.”

The girl gave Thirlwell a tranquil glance in which there was a hint of mockery.

“He has only a week left, and I imagine knows better than we do what will please him best,” she replied, and turned to her companion.

“What have you to say to that?” Allott asked Thirlwell, with a twinkle.

“It looks as if Evelyn knew my character—­I suppose I am obstinate.  But I don’t think she has stated the case correctly.  It isn’t that I don’t want to come.  Unfortunately, I can’t.”

The other guests were leaving the tables and Mrs. Allott, getting up, gave her husband a meaning glance.

“Then I must let Stephen talk to you.  You may listen to his arguments; I have exhausted mine.”