Part 1 (2/2)
”Certainly not. I am going myself.”
”Oh, but don't!” he begged her very seriously. ”I shall take it horribly to heart if you do. And really, I don't deserve such a snub as that.”
Again she faintly smiled. ”I am not feeling malicious, but you are expecting your partner. And I--”
”No, I am not,” he a.s.serted. ”My partner has basely deserted me for another fellow. I came in here merely because I was wandering about seeking distraction. Please don't go--unless I bore you--in which case you have only to dismiss me.”
She turned her eyes questioningly upon the cards before him. ”What are you doing with them? Is it a game?”
”Won't you sit down?” he said, ”and I will tell you.”
She seated herself facing him. ”Well?”
He considered the cards for a little, his brows bent. Then, ”It is a magician's game,” he said. ”Let me read your fortune.”
She hesitated.
Instantly he looked up. ”You are not afraid?”
She met his look, a certain wistfulness in her grey eyes. ”Oh, no, not afraid--only sceptical.”
”Only sceptical!” he echoed. ”That is a worldwide complaint. But anyone with imagination can always pretend. You are not good at pretending?”
”Not particularly.”
His eyes challenged hers. ”Perhaps you have never needed an anaesthetic?”
he said coolly.
She looked slightly startled. ”What do you mean?”
He leaned deliberately forward across the table. ”You know what an anaesthetic does, don't you? It cheats the senses of pain. And a little humbug does the same for the mind. Of course you don't believe anything.
I don't myself. But you can't stand for ever and contemplate an abyss of utter ignorance. You must weave a little romance about it for the sake of your self-respect.”
She looked straight into the challenging eyes. The wistfulness was still in her own. ”Then you are offering to weave a little romance for me?” she said, with a faint involuntary sigh.
He made her a brief bow. ”If you will permit me to do so.”
”To relieve your boredom?” she suggested with a smile.
”And yours,” he smiled back, taking up the cards.
She did not contradict him. She only lowered her eyes to the deft hands that were disposing the cards in mystic array upon the table.
There followed a few moments of silence; then in his careless, unmusical drawl the man spoke.
”Do you mind telling me your first name? It is essential to the game, of course, or I shouldn't presume to ask.”
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