"Menzies, forsooth!" He scorned Menzies.
"Then I don't see why you should go. I shouldn't like it. I hope you will
stay."
He looked at her now across the dusk, intensely. "You hope I will stay?"
"Yes, certainly I do."
"You hope I will stay? You ask me to stay?"
She considered. Then she said, "Yes, I think so. Yes, I do."
"Then," said Struan, "God help us all. I stay."
Miss Percival said cheerfully, "I'm so glad. I'll speak to Menzies to-
morrow, and get him to leave you alone. He knows how well you do the
melons, but of course he would never admit it." She broke off the
interview shortly afterwards.
"I'm going to bed," she told him. "I've got lots to do to-morrow. Heaps of
things. You must get me some of your flowers for the rooms."
He was not appeased, "Menzies will do it," he said. She laughed.
"You know what Menzies will say--'Pelargoniums for the hall, Miss
Percival, and some nice maidenhair.' He's not inventive, poor Menzies."
"He's an old fool," said Struan. "He takes flowers for spangles in a
circus."
Miss Percival again laughed softly, and held out her hand. "Good-night,"
she said. "I'm going."
He touched her hand, and then put his own behind his back.
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