CHAPTER XV
Probably nothing else in the world could so soon have transformed
Scarlett Trent from the Gold Coast buccaneer to the law-abiding
tenant of a Surrey villa. Before her full, inquiring eyes and
calm salute he found himself at once abashed and confused. He
raised his hand to his head, only to find that he had come out
without a hat, and he certainly appeared, as he stood there, to his
worst possible advantage.
"Good morning, miss," he stammered; "I'm afraid I startled you!"
She winced a little at his address, but otherwise her manner was
not ungracious.
"You did a little," she admitted. "Do you usually stride out of
your windows like that, bareheaded and muttering to yourself?"
"I was in a beastly temper," he admitted. "If I had known who was
outside - it would have been different."
She looked into his face with some interest. "What an odd thing!"
she remarked. "Why, I should have thought that to-day you would
have been amiability itself. I read at breakfast-time that you had
accomplished something more than ordinarily wonderful in the City
and had made - I forget how many hundreds of thousands of pounds.
When I showed the sketch of your house to my chief, and told him
that you were going to let me interview you to-day, I really thought
that he would have raised my salary at once.
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