Part 5 (2/2)
”I don't know.”
”Are you really going?” he asked and his look pleaded with her for honesty.
”I shall have to arrange it all with Uncle Alfred.”
He straightened himself against the rock, but he said nothing.
”And we're just beginning to be friends,” she added sensibly, with the faintest accent of regret.
At that he stirred again, and ”No,” he said steadily, ”that's not true.
We're not friends--couldn't be. You think I'm a fool, but I can see you're despising me all the time. I can see that, and I wonder why.”
She caught her lip. ”Well, George,” she began, and thought quickly. ”I have heard dreadful stories about you. You can't expect me to be--not to be careful with you.”
”What stories?” he demanded.
”Oh! I couldn't tell you.”
”H'm. There never was a Halkett but was painted so black that he got to think it was his natural colour. That doesn't matter. And you don't care about the stories. You've some notion--D'you know that I went to the same school as your brothers?”
”Yes, I know.” She swung herself to her knees. ”But you're not like them. But that isn't it either. It's because you're a man.” She laughed a little as she knelt before him. ”I can't help feeling that I can--that men are mine--to play with. There! I've told you a secret.”
”I'd guessed it long ago,” he muttered. He stood up and turned aside.
”You're not going to play with me.”
”Just a little bit, George!”
”Not a little bit.”
”Very well,” she said humbly, and rose too. ”I may never see you again, so I'll say good-bye.”
”Good-bye,” he answered, and held her hand.
”And if I don't go away, and if I feel that I don't want to play with you, but just to--well, really to be friends with you, can I be?”
”I don't know,” he said slowly. ”I don't trust you.”
She nodded, teasing her lip again. ”Very well,” she repeated. ”I shall remember. Yes. You're going to be very unhappy, you know.”
”Why?” he asked dully.
”For saying that to me.”
”But it's the truth.”
She shook her little hands at him and spoke loudly. ”You seem to think the truth's excuse enough for anything, but you're wrong, George, and if you were worth it, I should hate you.”
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