She laughed smotheredly like Lorelei through some soft, warm wave. "What an awful fraud you are, Morry!... You pay me compliments and all the time you're thinking what a nuisance it's going to be, having me at Newport this season!"
Loring looked at her oddly. Then he looked down at the white hand which still lay against his breast.
"Take your hand away, Linda!" he said curtly.
She took it away and turned it about before her in the moonlight, gazing at it consideringly.
"Poor little old hand!" she breathed pityingly. "You've offended the king...."
She held it up between them, again laughing.
"Must I cut it off?" she asked teasingly. "Will you cut it off for me and 'cast it into the fire'?"
Loring said nothing. He leaned there looking at her darkly. He hated her and desired her. It was the old emotion, under whose stress he had once kissed her, magnified tenfold.
She straightened suddenly and was close to him.
"Why are you so horrid to me, Morry?" she said, in a vehement whisper. "What have I done to vex you? I think it's cruel of you ... my first evening at home ... my first 'grown-up' evening with you...."