“And if I didn’t,” he replied, “you were prepared to live with me for a fortnight. Oh, you make me ashamed!”
“I wanted to save you from these other women,” she protested.
“I tell you there never were any other women,” he answered. “I’m not a man out of one of your horrible novels.”
“I don’t know what you are driving at,” she exclaimed. “Anyway I won’t be played fast and loose with like this. I shall go back to my friends tomorrow, and I hope I shall never see you again.”
Suddenly her voice broke, and throwing her arms out across the table, she laid her head upon them, and cried bitterly.
Daniel did not move. His heart was hardened against her, and he told himself that her tears were but one of the wiles of her sex.
“No,” he said at length, coming suddenly to a decision, “you shall not go back tomorrow. You have come here for a fortnight, and have made arrangements for your visit to be secret. You say there is no fear of a scandal such as would hurt your father. Very well then, you shall stay here a fortnight whether you want to or not. I propose that we get to know each other: we’ve had enough misunderstandings. You have misunderstood everything I have ever said to you: it has all been warped and twisted by your miserable society attitude of mind.”
“I shall never understand you,” she answered, raising her head, and drying her eyes with the back of her hand. “This is quite final. You’ve insulted me and humiliated me. I might have known that that was what you’d do.”
“Very well,” he said, “I think you had better go to your room now. Remember, you are going to stay here for the full fortnight.”
“I shall do no such thing,” she declared, facing him defiantly.