Part 45 (2/2)
”Did they hurt you?”
”Oh, no. But the car-wheels might have.”
”The car-wheels?”
”Yes. They were all for dumping me down the steps of the vestibule.
But I've got a nasty disposition, Scheherazade, and I kicked and bit and screamed so l.u.s.tily that I disgusted them and they simply left the train and concluded to cut my acquaintance.”
It was evident that his good-humoured mockery perplexed her. Once or twice the shadow of a smile pa.s.sed over her dark eyes, but they remained uncertain and watchful.
”You really were astonished to see me alive again, weren't you?” he asked.
”I was surprised to see you, of course.”
”Alive?”
”I told you that I asked them not to really hurt you.”
”Do you suppose I believe _that_, after your pistol practice on me?”
”It is true,” she replied, her eyes resting on him.
”You wished to reserve me for more pistol practice?”
”I have no--enmity--for you.”
”Oh, Scheherazade!” he protested, laughing.
”You are wrong, Mr. Neeland.”
”After all I did to you?”
To his surprise a bright blush spread over her face where it lay framed by the pillows; she turned her head abruptly and lay without speaking.
He sat thinking for a few minutes, then leaning forward from where he sat on the bed's edge:
”After a man's been shot at and further intimidated with a large, unpleasantly rusty Kurdish dagger, he is likely to proceed without ceremony. All the same, I am sorry I had to humiliate you, Scheherazade.”
She lay silent, unstirring.
”A girl would never forgive that, I know,” he said. ”So I shall look for a short shrift from you if your opportunity ever comes.”
The girl appeared to be asleep. He stood up and looked down at her.
The colour had faded from the one cheek visible. For a while he listened to her quiet breathing, then, the imp of perversity seizing him, and intensely diverted by the situation, he bent over her, touched her cheek with his lips, put on his hat, took box and suitcase, and went out to spend the remaining hour or two in the smoking room, leaving her to sleep in peace.
But no sooner had he closed the door on her than the girl sat straight up on the sofa, her face surging in colour, and her eyes brilliant with starting tears.
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