"I'd have been all right if I hadn't come," he murmured, and Jinny
felt suddenly ashamed of herself.

"Do you suppose that you would stay all right if you came to
dinner?" she offered pacificably. "It's our last night, you know,
till we come back from the Nile."

"I wish I could." Ryder stopped short. Now, why didn't he? Certainly
he didn't intend--

But his tongue took matters promptly out of his hesitation's hands.
"Fact is, I've an engagement." He added, appeasingly, "That's why I
was so keen on getting you for tea." And Jinny told him
appreciatively that it was a lovely tea and a lovely view.

"We're going to be at the hotel, I expect," she threw out,
carelessly, "and if you get through in time--"

Rather hastily he assured her that indeed, if he got through in
time--

She was a nice girl, was Jinny. A pretty girl, with just the right
amount of red in her hair. Sanity would have sent him to the hotel
to dine with her.

Sanity would also have sent him to the Jockey Club with McLean.

Certainly sanity had nothing to do with the way that he kept himself
to himself, after his farewells at the hotel with the Pendletons,
and took him to an out-of-the-way Greek café where he dined very