Part 45 (1/2)
”I don't look suspicious, do I?”
”You behave suspiciously. You speak to people whom you do not know, and you follow them in the street!...”
”Only you, Eleanor. Not anybody else!”
There was a silence for a few moments, and then she turned to the door and inserted the key in the lock.
”Well, please go away now,” she said. ”You can't do any good here!...”
”Let me come in and tell your father and mother I want to marry you!”
She opened the door and gazed at him as if she could not believe her ears.
”This is a residential club for women,” she said. ”I have no parents, I think you're the silliest man I've ever encountered. Please go away!
You'll get me talked about!...”
She shut the door in his face.
He stared blankly at the gla.s.s panels of the door for a few moments and then went down the steps into the street, and as he did so, he saw a light suddenly illuminate the room immediately above the pillared portico. He stared up at it, and saw that the window was open, and while he looked, he saw Eleanor come to it and begin to draw it down.
He called out to her. ”Eleanor!” he said, ”Hi, Eleanor!”
She peered out of the window, and then leant her head through the opening. ”There's a policeman at the corner,” she said, ”I shall call him if you don't go away!”
”Very well,” he replied. ”They can't put a man in gaol for loving a woman!”
”They can put him in gaol for annoying her!”
”I'm not annoying you. How can I annoy you when I'm in love with you?
No, don't interrupt me. You haven't let me get a word out of my mouth all night!” He could hear her laughing at him. ”Are you codding me?” he said.
”What?” she replied in a puzzled voice.
”Are you codding me?” he repeated. ”Are you making fun of me?”
She leant out of the window as if she were trying to see him more closely. ”You really are funny,” she said. ”I was afraid of you ... you stared so ... but I'm not afraid of you now. You're a funny little fellow, but I do wish you'd go away!”
”Come down and talk to me, and I'll go home content!...”
”You're being silly again!”
”No, I'm not. I tell you, girl, I'm mad in love with you, and I'll sit on your doorstep all night 'til you agree to go out with me!”
”The policeman would lock you up if you were to do that,” she replied.
”I'm not in love with you ... I don't even like you ... I think you're a horrid man, staring at people the way you do ... and I won't 'go out with you,' as you call it. I'm not a servant girl!...”
”What does it matter to me what sort of a girl you are, if I'm in love with you. You must like me ... you can't help it!...”
”Oh, can't I?”