Part 18 (2/2)
Though I did not see why it should have done.
”I was not speaking of Hetty. Nor am I anxious to, just now.”
”Aren't you? Have you quarrelled with her, as well?”
”As well? Why do you say as well?”
”Oh, I don't know. You're always quarrelling.”
”That's not true.”
”Thank you. Is that a snub? Or merely a compliment?”
”Molly, why will you treat me like this? It's you who treat me like a child, not I you.”
”There's the lake at last, thank goodness!”
I did not care if it was rude or not. I was delighted to see it, so I said so plainly. What is more, I tore off towards it as hard as I could. My rush was so unexpected that I was clean away before he knew it. All the same he reached the lake as soon as I did. He could run, just as he could do everything else. The ice looked splendid, smooth as a sheet of gla.s.s. All about were the pines with their frosted branches. They seemed to stand in rows, so that they looked like the pillars in the aisles of some great cathedral. And then pine-trees always are so solemn and so still.
”Give me my skates, please. I want to get them on at once. Doesn't the ice look too lovely for anything?
”It's not a question of what it looks like, but of what it will bear.”
He stepped on to the edge. It gave an ominous crack. I daresay, if he had waited, long enough, it would have given way beneath him. But he did not. He hopped back on to the solid ground. ”You see!”
”Excuse me, but that is exactly what I do not do. Here it is under the shadow of the trees. Besides, the water is so shallow that it is practically cat's ice. I'm sure it's all right a little further round and in the middle. It's often cracky near the edge.”
”I am sure it is not safe anywhere.”
”Will you please give me my skates, Mr Sanford?”
He looked at me. So as to let him see that I had no intention of being cowed, I looked back at him.
”I hope that, this once, you will be advised. I a.s.sure you it is unsafe.”
”Please give me my skates.”
He laughed, in that queer way he had of laughing at unexpected moments, when there certainly seemed nothing to laugh at.
”Good. Then it is decided. We will both go skating.”
”Both? It is not necessary that we should do anything of the kind. I wish you would let me do as I like, without criticism. Who appointed you to have authority over me? Who suggested that because I choose to do a thing you should do it too? I prefer not to have you attached to my ap.r.o.n-strings. Give me my skates. You can go home. I would rather you did.”
”If you skate, I skate also.”
”As you please, if you can get over your timidity. There is room on the lake for two. If you will choose one end I will have the other.”
”I shall skate where you do.”
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