Part 43 (1/2)
”Oh, la!” she exclaimed with a shrug of her youthful shoulders. ”Perhaps you think I have time for such foolishness--what with housework to do and was.h.i.+ng, and caring for my father, and my duties in the belfry every day!”
”Youth pa.s.ses swiftly, belle Maryette.”
”Imitate him, beau monsieur, and swiftly pa.s.s your way!”
”_L'amour est doux, pet.i.te Marie!_”
”_Je m'en moque!_”
He rose, smiling confidently, dropped on his knees beside her, and rolled back his cuffs.
”Come,” he said, ”I'll help you wash. We two should finish quickly.”
”I am in no haste.”
”But it will give you an hour's leisure, belle Maryette.”
”Why should I wish for leisure, beau monsieur?”
”I shall try to instruct you why, when we have our hour together.”
”Do you mean to pay court to me?”
”I am doing that now. My ardent courts.h.i.+p will already be accomplished, so that we need not waste our hour together!” He began to laugh and wring out the linen.
”Monsieur,” she expostulated smilingly, ”your apropos disturbs me. Have you the a.s.surance to believe that you already appeal to my heart?”
”Have I not appealed to it a little, Maryette?”
The girl averted her head coquettishly. For a few minutes they scrubbed away there together, side by side on their knees above the rim of the pool. Then, without warning, his hot, red lips burned her neck. Her swift recoil was also a shudder; her face flushed.
”Don't do that!” she said sharply, straightening up in the gra.s.s where she was kneeling.
”You are so adorable!” he pleaded in a low, tense voice.
There was a long silence. She had moved aside and away from him on her knees; her head remained turned, too, and her features were set as though carven out of rosy marble.
She was summoning every atom of resolution, every particle of courage to do what she must do. Every fibre in her revolted with the effort; but she steeled herself, and at last the forced smile was stamped on her lips, and she dared turn her head and meet his burning gaze.
”You frighten me,” she said--and her unsteady voice was convincing. ”A young girl is not courted so abruptly.”
”Forgive me,” he murmured. ”I could not help myself--your neck is so fragrant, so childlike----”
”Then you should treat me as you would a child!” she retorted pettishly.
”Amuse me, if you aspire to any comrades.h.i.+p with me. Your behaviour does not amuse me at all.”
”We shall become comrades,” he said confidently, ”and you shall be sufficiently amused.”
”It requires time for two people to become comrades.”
”Will you give me an hour this evening?”