No, I came to see you because I had an
inclination. I did not guess that you were going until Miss Caron told
me."
"An inclination to see me is not your usual instinct, is it? Was it some
special impulse, based on a scientific calculation--at which, I suppose,
you are an adeptor curiosity? Or had it a purpose? Or were you bored, and
therefore sought the most startling experience you could conceive?" She
deftly rearranged some flowers in a jar.
"I can plead innocence of all directly; I am guilty of all indirectly: I
was impelled to come. I reasoned--if that is scientific--on what I should
say if I did come, knowing how inclined I was to--"
"To get beyond my depth," she interrupted, and she motioned me to a
chair.
"Well, let it be so," said I. "I was curious to know what kept you in
this sylvan, and I fear, to you, half-barbaric spot. I was bored with
myself; and I had some purpose in coming, or I should not have had the
impulse."
She was leaning back in her chair easily, not languidly. She seemed
reposeful, yet alert.
"How wonderfully you talk!" she said, with good-natured mockery.
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