Part 6 (2/2)
”I have been hovering about for a quarter of an hour.”
He was startled, then laughed. The veiled woman stood on tip-toe and kissed him on the forehead, he stooping mechanically to meet her movement.
”You don't mind the veil?” she said.
”How did you know I was not indoors and abed by this time?” he asked.
”I didn't know. I only came to meditate in the moonlight. I have been enjoying such exquisite emotions. Are you too tired for a promenade round the circle?”
He fell in with her humour.
”Morgan, reproaches have been acc.u.mulating. To save time--you know I never waste any--you shall have them all in one ferocious phrase. You have been brutal to me of late. I don't mean to say that you've ever ceased to be charming, but--why, at least, didn't you answer my note?”
”It only came this morning,” he stammered, ”and I haven't had time to read it yet.”
”In other words, you wrinkled your brow as soon as you saw it, made up your mind I was beginning to be somewhat of a nuisance, and threw it aside unopened. Of course, you forgot all about it afterwards. You have a perfect genius for putting crude facts in a delicate way.”
”Another new discovery about me.”
”That is but the natural result of the profound thought I bestow upon you.”
”Your profound thought contradicts itself. It declares me brutal and charming with the same breath.”
”Profound thought always contradicts itself. I know it for a fact, because I've been looking up Hegel. The nice things and nasty things I say about you arise equally from my love for you, which is thus the unifying principle. The apparent contradictoriness, therefore, disappears in a higher synthesis.”
”Quarter! A man can't stand having philosophers hurled at his head.”
”But I kiss your head sometimes. I'm sure I'd much prefer that always, only you goad me into the other thing.”
”I goad?”
”Yes. By your masterly inactivity when I am concerned. I have to force myself into your life, and after we've been chums for three years, you, left to yourself, ignore my existence. You have such a terrible power of negative resistance against poor, strong-willed me. But, after all, you admire me tremendously, don't you, dear Morgan?”
”I have told you scores of times you are the cleverest woman in the kingdom.”
”I am the only woman who understands your poetry. I don't mean that as a bit of sarcasm at the expense of your compliment--I merely want to show you I deserve it.”
He made no reply. For a few moments there was a silence.
”How reticent you are to-night!” she said at length. ”You usually have quite a deal to tell me. Are the sentimental chapters preying on your mind? I do so much want to know about those sentimental chapters, but you always evade the subject. Tell me, _are_ there any in your life?”
”Ours was to be an intellectual companions.h.i.+p only.”
”Comprising intellectual sympathy and kissing on the forehead--both of them chaste, stony, saint-like, tantalising things. But I'd be content for the time being if I were only sure your heart were perfectly free. I couldn't bear the thought of your making love to another woman.”
”You are amusing.”
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