"If I've made myself out a prig," said Temple, "I'm sorry. I could tell you lots of things."
"Please spare me! Why are people always so frightfully ashamed of having behaved like decent human beings? I esteem you immensely."
"I'd rather you liked me."
"Well, so I do. But I like lots of people I don't esteem. If I'd married anyone it would probably have been some one like that. But for Betty it's different. I shouldn't have needed to esteem my own husband. But I must esteem hers."
"I'll try not to deserve your esteem more than I'm obliged," said Temple, "but your liking--what can I do to deserve that--?"
"Go on as you've begun, my dear young man, and you'll be Aunt Julia's favourite nephew. No--don't blush. It's an acknowledgement of a tender speech that I always dispense with."
"Advise me," said he, red to the ears and hands. "She doesn't care for me, at present. What can I do?"
"What most of us have to do--when we want anything worth wanting. Wait. We're going home the day after to-morrow. If you turn up at Long Barton about the middle of September--you might come down for the Harvest Festival; it's the yearly excitement. That's what I should do."
"Must I wait so long as that?" he asked. "Why?"
"Let me whisper in your ear," said Miss Desmond, loud above the chatter of the weir. "Long Barton is very dull! Now let's go back."
"I don't want her to accept me because she's bored."
"No more do I. But one sees the proportions of things better when one's dull. And--yes. I esteem you; I like you. You are ingenuous, and innocuous.--No, really that was a yielding to the devil of alliteration. I mean you are a real good sort. The other man has the harmlessness of the serpent. As for me, I have the wisdom of the dove. You profit by it and come to Long Barton in September."
"It seems like a plot to catch her," said Temple.
"A friend of yours told me you were straight. And you are. I thought perhaps she flattered you."
"Who?--No, I'm not to ask questions."
"Lady St. Craye."
"Do you know," he said, slowly pulling downstream, "there's one thing I didn't tell you. I came away from Paris because I wasn't quite sure that I wasn't in love with her."