Part 90 (2/2)
”Why not? I beg you to forgive me for my rudeness. I feel very ashamed of it now. I have learnt in all these days to respect you very much.”
His voice sounded so earnest, so sincere, that she felt suddenly a sense of relief. After all, he had always treated her with respect. He had never been impertinent, or even really audacious, and yet he had always known that she had wanted to meet him, that she had meant to meet him!
He had never taken advantage of that knowledge. If he were really what d.i.c.k Garstin said he was, surely he would have acted differently.
”Do you really respect me?” she said.
”Yes. Have I not shown it in all these days? Have I ever done anything a lady could object to?”
”No.”
Her hand still lay in his, and his touch had aroused in her that strange and intense desire to belong to him which seemed a desire entirely of the body, something with which the mind had little or nothing to do.
”Are you evil?” her eyes were asking him.
And his eyes, looking straight down into hers, seemed steadily and simply to deny it.
”Do you believe the lie of d.i.c.k Garstin?” they said to her.
And she no longer knew whether she believed it or not.
He drew a little nearer to her.
”I respect you--yes,” he said. ”But that is not all. I have another feeling for you. I have had it ever since I first saw you that night, when I was standing by the door in the Cafe Royal and you looked at me.”
”But--but you--”
”Yes?”
Her lips trembled. Again jealousy seized her.
”I saw you that night in Conduit Street,” she said. ”You thought I didn't, but I did.”
He still looked perfectly calm and untroubled.
”You were dining with d.i.c.k Garstin. May I not dine with someone?”
”Then why did you leave the restaurant?”
”I did not want you to see me.”
”Ah!”
”I thought you might not understand.”
”I do understand. I understand perfectly!”
She drew her hand sharply away from his.
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