Part 28 (1/2)

While he was away from her, her attraction for him loomed less than the things she promised, of power and gratified ambition. But he found her, with her gentle aloofness, exceedingly appealing, and with the tact of the man who understands women he adapted himself to her humor.

”You are making me very unhappy; Miss Lily,” he said. ”If you'll only promise to let me see you now and then, I'll promise to be as mild as dish-water. Will you promise?”

She was still struggling, still remembering w.i.l.l.y Cameron, still trying to remember all the things that Louis Akers was not.

”I think I ought not to see you at all.”

”Then,” he said slowly, ”you are going to cut me off from the one decent influence in my life.”

She was still revolving that in her mind when tea came. Akers, having shot his bolt, watched with interest the preparation for the little ceremony, the old Georgian teaspoons, the Crown Derby cups, the bell-shaped Queen Anne teapot, beautifully chased, the old pierced sugar basin. Almost his gaze was proprietary. And he watched Lily, her casual handling of those priceless treasures, her taking for granted of service and beauty, her acceptance of quality because she had never known anything else, watched her with possessive eyes.

When the servant had gone, he said:

”You are being very nice to me, in view of the fact that you did not ask me to come. And also remembering that your family does not happen to care about me.”

”They are not at home.”

”I knew that, or I should not have come. I don't want to make trouble for you, child.” His voice was infinitely caressing. ”As it happens, I know your grandfather's Sunday habits, and I met your father and mother on the road going out of town at noon. I knew they had not come back.”

”How do you know that?”

He smiled down at her. ”I have ways of knowing quite a lot of things.

Especially when they are as vital to me as this few minutes alone with you.”

He bent toward her, as he sat behind the tea table.

”You know how vital this is to me, don't you?” he said. ”You're not going to cut me off, are you?”

He stood over her, big, compelling, dominant, and put his hand under her chin.

”I am insane about you,” he whispered, and waited.

Slowly, irresistibly, she lifted her face to his kiss.

CHAPTER XV

On the first day of May, William Wallace Cameron moved his trunk, the framed photograph of his mother, eleven books, an alarm clock and Jinx to the Boyd house. He went for two reasons. First, after his initial call at the dreary little house, he began to realize that something had to be done in the Boyd family. The second reason was his dog.

He began to realize that something had to be done in the Boyd family as soon as he had met Mrs. Boyd.

”I don't know what's come over the children,” Mrs. Boyd said, fretfully.

She sat rocking persistently in the dreary little parlor. Her chair inched steadily along the dull carpet, and once or twice she brought up just as she was about to make a gradual exit from the room. ”They act so queer lately.”

She hitched the chair into place again. Edith had gone out. It was her idea of an evening call to serve cakes and coffee, and a strong and acrid odor was seeping through the doorway. ”There's Dan come home from the war, and when he gets back from the mill he just sits and stares ahead of him. He won't even talk about the war, although he's got a lot to tell.”

”It takes some time for the men who were over to get settled down again, you know.”

”Well, there's Edith,” continued the querulous voice. ”You'd think the cat had got her tongue, too. I tell you, Mr. Cameron, there are meals here when if I didn't talk there wouldn't be a word spoken.”