"Why should there be anything wrong?"

"Something is," replied Kitty decidedly. "Did I swish you away from
the flat against your will?"

"I should be a very ungrateful person if I failed to appreciate my
present privileges."

She shook her head disgustedly.

"You're a very annoying person!" she returned. "You invariably take
refuge in a compliment."

"Dear Madame Kitty"--Mallory leaned forward and looked down at her with
his steady grey-blue eyes--"dear Madame Kitty, I say to you _what I
mean_. I do not compliment my friends"--his voice deepened--"my dear,
trusted friends."

His foreign twist of phrase was unusually pronounced, as always in
moments of strong feeling.

"But that's just it!" she declared emphatically. "You're _not_
trusting me--you're keeping me outside the door."

"Believe me, there's nothing you'd wish to see--the other side."

"Which means that in any case it's no use knocking at a door that won't
be opened," said Kitty, apparently yielding the point. "So we'll
switch off that subject and get on to the next. We go down to Mallow