"No, I am going into the mountains this time, to the Tyrol or the Salzkammergut. I will let you know soon. Will you come?"
"But you are bound to have a large following anywhere."
"I won't trouble about any one except you, George."
"Even supposing Willy Eissler happens to stay in your vicinity?"
"Oh," she said, with a wanton smile and put out her cigarette by pressing it violently upon the glass ash-tray.
They went on talking. It was just like one of those conversations they had had so often during the last few years. It began lightly and flippantly, and eventually finished in a blaze of tender lies which were true for just one moment. George was once again fascinated by Sissy.
"I would really prefer to go travelling with you," he whispered quite near her.
She just nodded. Her left arm rested on the broad back of the ottoman. "If one could only do as one wanted," she said, with a look that dreamt of a hundred men.
He bent down over her trembling arm, went on speaking and became intoxicated with his own words. "Somewhere where nobody knows us, where nobody bothers about any one, that is where I should like to be with you, Sissy, many days and nights."
Sissy shuddered. The word "nights" made her shudder with fear.