"Don't say that, Cyril. But why must I give up my liberty long before—well, long before I can get anything instead of it?" She smiled again, propitiating him. "Let me go abroad, anyhow. I'll try to tell you when I come back. There!"
"I confess to thinking that you had practically told me long ago. On the faith of that, I acted."
"You've not the smallest right to say that. I liked you and let you see it. I never pledged myself."
"Not in words, I allow."
"Cyril, your insinuation isn't justifiable. I resent it. Whatever I may have felt, I have said and done nothing that I mightn't have with anybody."
He had held his temper hard; it gave a kick now. "With Thrapston, for instance?" he sneered.
"Oh, how absurd! I've never so much as thought of Sir Axel in that way!" As she spoke, she glanced at the clock. No, there was plenty of time. She did not desire an encounter between the two this afternoon. She rose and stood by Maxon. "You're being rather exacting and—and tyrannical, my lord," she said. "I don't think I like you so much to-day. You almost bully me—indeed you do!"
He bent his eyes on hers, frowning heavily. "I did it for you."
"Oh, it's not fair to put that on me! Indeed it isn't. But, please, don't let's quarrel. It's really such a little thing I ask—not much more than a month to think it over—when nothing can happen for more than six! Indeed, I think a year would—well, would look better for both of us."
"Oh, make it two years—make it five!" he growled.