Part 24 (2/2)
Her golden eyes gleamed; and he read a secret mockery in them. No, mark you, he'd take jolly good care that his sentimentality didn't make him see her as a chocolate-box picture! You only had to look at her eyes!
”But, Gerrit,” she said, nestling at his feet, ”I never ran after you! I met you by accident, really by accident, I a.s.sure you. Don't you remember? Yes, once when I was driving: that was the first time; then near the Alexander Barracks....”
”But what were you doing near the barracks, d.a.m.n it?”
She looked at him coaxingly, stroked him caressingly:
”Oh, well ... I thought...!”
”There, you see!... You thought...!”
”Yes, you won't believe me.... Even towards the end ... in Paris, Gerrit....”
”Well?”
”I used to think of you sometimes.”
”Oh, rot, you're lying!... Do you think I believe you?”
”No, you don't believe me, but, Gerrit.... I a.s.sure you ... men are beasts ... and you....”
”Oh, yes, you tell everybody that: do you imagine I don't see through it?”
Then she laughed merrily; and he laughed too.
”I'm laughing,” she said, ”because you're pretending to be so cynical.
... Tell me, Gerrit, why do you pretend to be so cynical?”
”I?”
”Yes, you: why do you do it? You're putting it on, aren't you, on purpose?”
”Purpose be blowed!... If you think I'm going to be taken in by all your pretty speeches!... If you come to me with pretty speeches, it's because you want money and I've ... I've told you, I haven't any....”
”But, Gerrit, I don't ask you for money ... and I'm not getting any from you either....”
He flushed, a deep glow overspreading his red, sunburnt face and the white neck on which the tight collar of his uniform had left a plainly-visible line. What she said was quite true: she asked for no money and he gave her no money. He had none to give her.
”Now let me tell you,” she said, nestling still closer against his knees. ”You see, in Paris, towards the end, I got the blues badly....
You understand, Gerrit, don't you, one has enough of the life sometimes ... and a fit like that isn't very cheerful?”
”Oh, rot!” he said, gruffly. ”And you, who are always laughing!”
”I'm always laughing?”
”Yes, you, with those eyes of yours, those eyes which are always laughing.”
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