Part 48 (2/2)
His face relaxed suddenly into laughter.
'I don't know whether I want to shake you or kiss you... you... you - ”
”Thanks, I'll take the shake,” she interrupted promptly. ”I certainly haven't deserved such severe punishment as a kiss.”
He took a step towards her, but she stood quite still and laughed in his face; and he could only turn away, laughing himself.
Yet he was conscious that her att.i.tude riled him. He was not in the least vain, but all the same it was absurd that Hal should persist in being the one woman who was not only utterly indifferent to his attractions, but seemed almost to scorn him for them. In some of the others it would not have mattered in the least - at any rate he thought so - but in Hal it was sheer nonsense.
He liked her better than any one, except perhaps Lorraine, and he always enjoyed their sparring; but of course there was a limit, and she really might be seriously friendly sometimes; and anyhow he hated Sir Edwin Crathie.
While he thought all this more or less vaguely, Hal watched him with undisguised amus.e.m.e.nt.
”Don't think so hard,” she said; ”it spoils the line of your profile.”
”Hang my profile!” he exclaimed, almost crossly. ”Can't you be serious for five minutes, you're always so - so - ”
”Not at all. I'm perfectly serious. A frown doesn't suit you one little bit. Imagine a scowl on one of Raphael's cherubim.”
”I don't want to imagine anything so silly, and I'm not in the least like a cherub. It would be more sensible if you want to do some wise imagining, to think of Sir Edwin Crathie, and imagine yourself in the devil's clutches.”
”But I've not the smallest wish to be in Sir Edwin's clutches, so why should I try to imagine it?... and you're not at all polite, are you?”
”I'm honest anyway; and I'll warrant that's more than he can rise to.”
”But really, dear Alymer,” reverting again to the mocking tone, ”at what period of your friends.h.i.+p with him have you had occasion to find him out?”
”Your sarcasm won't frighten me. A man knows more about this sort of thing than a girl. Of course he is all right in an ordinary way, but you are so often with him... Considering his political career, it is positively unpatriotic of you to be such close friends.”
”Such nonsense! Do you want me to be as bigoted and narrow-minded as those Conservatives who are continually holding the party back, because they are quite incapable of realising there are two sides to a question? I don't hold the same views as Sir Edwin at all. I'm not likely to, being on the staff of the _Morning Mail_; but that isn't any reason why I should object to him as a friend.”
”No; but his reputation might be.”
Hal stamped her foot.
”Oh, don't stand there and talk about a man's reputation in that superior, self-satisfied fas.h.i.+on. What is it to you anyhow? My friends.h.i.+p can't possibly be any concern of yours.”
She moved away with a restless, ruffled manner, and threw back at him:
”Of course I'm awfully grateful to you for being so interested in my welfare, but your concern is a little misplaced. I am quite capable of taking care of myself, and have been for at least seven years.”
He looked hurt, and about to retort, but at that moment Lorraine's latch-key sounded in the door, and Hal went out into the hall to meet her.
”I'm so glad you've come,” she remarked, as they re-entered together.
”Baby is in one of his insufferable, superior moods, and is lecturing me on my friends.h.i.+p with Sir Edwin. And all because I casually mentioned I had had a game of golf with him.”
Lorraine looked a little surprised, but she only remarked laughingly:
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