He drew in his breath sharply. He had been standing in the light; but as he spoke now, he drew in under the protection of the high box and hid himself in the dark beside her. The girl had broken off a little green twig from the hedge; and she bent it about her slender fingers as she waited.
"So he considers it incredible, Miss Varris," Preston continued in a low voice, "that I should have claimed you as friends and forced myself upon you, as he has seen, with no other right than a dining- and bridge-table acquaintance across the Atlantic."
"No," the girl corrected fairly. "I think he formed his opinion quite as much from mother and me as from you. It would be foolish for me to deny that both mother and I have felt, and have not been afraid to show, far more—confidence in you, Mr. Preston," the girl raised her fair little face frankly, "than we usually would in one."
"Oh, I surely appreciate that, Miss Varris!"
"But he thought I was just trying to joke
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