Her question caught him entirely off guard. Make plans to speak — why? Ernest had imagined that her approaching him and starting up a conversation at all had been simply because they were acquainted and had caught sight of each other by chance. She had been obligated to say hello by common courtesy, just as he had been obligated not to avoid her offer too transparently. The courtesy, though, did not extend to making future arrangements. Nor did it make much sense to think that she was only saying this out of pity. It was possible, of course, but the few conversations they'd had at parties in the past did not give her that sort of obligation, at least not in his opinion. A friend or relative would have offered out of pity. Mrs. Binns, on the other hand... what motive could she have for wanting to speak to him in the future?

The only conclusion he could come to was that she genuinely enjoyed his company. That was surprising for two reasons. Although he had never explicitly thought it through, he would have assumed that their conversations in the past had only been due to convenience, since they tended to find themselves equally bored at society parties and were therefore better conversation partners than anyone who liked those sorts of things. The second reason was harder to articulate, even in his head, but he had the sense that even if they did enjoy each other's company, genuinely, and wanted to find more opportunities of sharing it, that would have changed after his injury. His ability to walk had no bearing on his conversational skills, it was true, but — but there was something different, and he was less than, and he did not expect anyone to willingly want to spend time with him in this state. And, apparently, she did — or at least, was pretending to.

"If you'd like that," he responded, still too startled to have much in way of response.