She saw Rodney looking pretty
blank, so she checked the waiter and said:
"I think I _did_ ask you to lunch with me, but if you'd rather I lunched
with you ... You can have it whichever way you like."
He hesitated just an instant; then said he'd like to lunch with her. And
somehow their eyes met over that in a way that, once more, made Rose
hold her breath. But the lightning didn't strike that time.
Even so, their hour wasn't wasted on the polite topics of custom-made
conversation, as, for a while, she had feared it would be; because he
asked her, presently--and she could see he really wanted to know--how
she had got started in this costuming business. It was evidently a thing
she had a genius for, but how had she found it out, and how had she
worked out that technique which, even to the eyes of his ignorance, was
clearly extraordinary?
And Rose, beginning a little timidly, because she knew there were rocks
ahead for him, told him the tale that had its beginning in Lessing's
store; the story of Mrs.
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