Part 27 (2/2)
”With the object of asking you one day to beround to face hilance litter in her eyes, a faint stir of colour in her cheeks She suspected hio very fast, don't you?” she asked him, with heat
”I do Haven't you observed it? I am a man of sudden impulses See what I have made of the Binet troupe in less than a couple of ht have laboured for a year and not achieved the half of it Shall I be slower in love than in work? Would it be reasonable to expect it? I have curbed and repressed myself not to scare you by precipitancy In that I have done violence tothe same cold aloofness hich you chose to treat me I have waited--oh!
so patiently--until you should tire of thatreed with her ”It is only the conviction that I am not commonplace that has permitted me to hope as I have hoped”
Mechanically, and as if by tacit consent, they resumed their walk
”And I ask you to observe,” he said, ”when you coo very fast, that, after all, I have so far asked you for nothing”
”How?” quoth she, frowning
”I have merely told you of my hopes I am not so rash as to ask at once whether I may realize them”
”My faith, but that is prudent,” said she, tartly
”Of course”
It was his self-possession that exasperated her; for after that she walked the short remainder of the way in silence, and so, for the ht, after they had supped, it chanced that when Cliether in the room abovestairs that her father kept exclusively for his co in the world
As Cliht, Scara it in her left hand, she offered hi, white hand at the end of a softly rounded arht, Scaraht his breath, and stood conning her, his dark eyes aglow
Thus a rasp, and bowing over the hand, pressed his lips upon it Then he looked at her again The intense femininity of her lured him on, invited hilitter in her eyes, a curious smile upon her parted lips, and under its fichu-menteur her bosom rose and fell to complete the betrayal of her
By the hand he continued to hold, he drew her towards hi He took the candle from her, and set it down on the sideboard by which she stood The next ht, lithe body was in his ar her name as if it were a prayer
”Aain for only answer ”You made me cruel because you would not see,” she told him next in a whisper
And then the door opened, and M Binet cahly indecorous behaviour of his daughter
He stood at gaze, whilst they quite leisurely, and in a self-possession too complete to be natural, detached each fro of this?” demanded M Binet, bewildered and profoundly shocked
”Does it require explaining?” asked Scaramouche ”Doesn't it speak for itself--eloquently? It means that Climene and I have taken it into our heads to be married”
”And doesn't it matter what I may take into my head?”
”Of course But you could have neither the bad taste nor the bad heart to offer any obstacle”