The Firing Line. Chambers Robert William

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СКАЧАТЬ he said. "I don't deserve to. But I'll be miserable until I do."

      After a moment: "And you are not going to ask me—because, once, I said that it was nice of you not to?"

      The hint of mockery in her voice edged his lips with a smile, but he shook his head. "No, I won't ask you that," he said. "I've been beastly enough for one day."

      "Don't you care to know?"

      "Of course I care to know."

      "Yet, exercising all your marvellous masculine self-control, you nobly refuse to ask?"

      "I'm afraid to," he said, laughing; "I'm horribly afraid of you."

      She considered him with clear, unsmiling eyes.

      "Coward!" she said calmly.

      He nodded his head, laughing still. "I know it; I almost lost you by saying 'Calypso' a moment ago and I'm taking no more risks."

      "Am I to infer that you expect to recover me after this?"

      And, as he made no answer: "You dare not admit that you hope to see me again. You are horribly afraid of me—even if I have defied convention and your opinions and have graciously overlooked your impertinence. In spite of all this you are still afraid of me. Are you?"

      "Yes," he said; "as much as I naturally ought to be."

      "That is nice of you. There's only one kind of a girl of whom men are really afraid.... And now I don't exactly know what to do about you—being, myself, as guilty and horrid as you have been."

      She regarded him contemplatively, her hands joined behind her back.

      "Exactly what to do about you I don't know," she repeated, leisurely inspecting him. "Shall I tell you something? I am not afraid to; I am not a bit cowardly about it either. Shall I?"

      "If you dare," he said, smiling and uncertain.

      "Very well, then; I rather like you, Mr. Hamil."

      "You are a trump!" he blurted out, reddening with surprise.

      "Are you astonished that I know you?"

      "I don't see how you found out—"

      "Found out! What perfectly revolting vanity! Do you suppose that the moment I left you I rushed home and began to make happy and incoherent inquiries? Mr. Hamil, you disappoint me every time you speak—and also every time you don't."

      "I seem to be doomed."

      "You are. You can't help it. Tell me—as inoffensively as possible—are you here to begin your work?"

      "M-my work?"

      "Yes, on the Cardross estate—"

      "You have heard of that!" he exclaimed, surprised.

      "Y-es—" negligently. "Petty gossip circulates here. A cracker at West Palm Beach built a new chicken coop, and we all heard of it. Tell me, do you still desire to see me again?"

      "I do—to pay a revengeful debt or two."

      "Oh! I have offended you? Pay me now, if you please, and let us end this indiscretion."

      "You will let me see you again, won't you?"

      "Why? Mr. Hamil."

      "Because I—I must!"

      "Oh! You are becoming emphatic. So I am going.... And I've half a mind to take you back and present you to my family.... Only it wouldn't do for me; any other girl perhaps might dare—under the circumstances; but I can't—and that's all I'll tell you."

      Hamil, standing straight and tall, straw hat tucked under one arm, bent toward her with the formality and engaging deference natural to him.

      "You have been very merciful to me; only a girl of your caste could afford to. Will you forgive my speaking to you as I did?—when I said 'Calypso!' I have no excuse; I don't know why I did. I'm even sorrier for myself than for you."

      "I was hurt.... Then I supposed that you did not mean it. Besides"—she looked up with her rare smile—"I knew you, Mr. Hamil, in the boat this morning. I haven't really been very dreadful."

      "You knew even then?"

      "Yes, I did. The Palm Beach News published your picture a week ago; and I read all about the very remarkable landscape architect who was coming to turn the Cardross jungle into a most wonderful Paradise."

      "You knew me all that time?"

      "All of it, Mr. Hamil."

      "From the moment you climbed into my boat?"

      "Practically. Of course I did not look at you very closely at first.... Does that annoy you? It seems to … or something does, for even in the dusk I can see your ever-ready blush—"

      "I don't know why you pretend to think me such a fool," he protested, laughing; "you seemed to take that for granted from the very first."

      "Why not? You persistently talked to me when you didn't know me—you're doing it now for that matter!—and you began by telling me that I was fool-hardy, not really courageous in the decent sense of the word, and that I was a self-conscious stick and a horribly inhuman and unnatural object generally—and all because I wouldn't flirt with you—"

      His quick laughter interrupted her. She ventured to laugh a little too—a very little; and that was the charm of her to him—the clear-eyed, delicate gravity not lightly transformed. But when her laughter came, it came as such a surprisingly lovely revelation that it left him charmed and silent.

      "I wonder," she said, "if you can be amusing—except when you don't mean to be."

      "If you'll give me a chance to try—"

      "Perhaps. I was hardly fair to you in that boat."

      "If you knew me in the boat this morning, why did you not say so?"

      "Could I admit that I knew you without first pretending I didn't? Hasn't every woman a Heaven-given right to travel in a circle as the shortest distance between two points?"

      "Certainly; only—"

      She shook her head slowly. "There's no use in my telling you who I am, now, considering that I can't very well escape exposure in the near future. That might verge on effrontery—and it's horrid enough to be here with you—in spite of several thousand people tramping about within elbow touch.... Which reminds me that my own party is probably hunting for me.... Such a crowd, you know, and so easy to become separated. What do you suppose they'd think if they suspected the truth?… And the worst of it is that I cannot afford to do a thing of this sort.... You don't understand; but you may some day—partly. And then perhaps you'll think this matter all over and come to a totally different conclusion concerning my overlooking your recent rudeness and—and my consenting to speak to you."

      "You don't believe for one moment that I could mistake it—"

      "It depends upon what sort of a man you really are.... I don't know. I give you the benefit of all doubts."

      She СКАЧАТЬ