“You? You’ve often done—”
“Of course! Everybody has—at one time or another in their lives. Naturally it doesn’t happen every day—and one wouldn’t want it to. One wouldn’t have anything left in the house if it did; but once in a way—it’s nothing. What astonishes me is that you should have thought of it.”
“But—but you’ve thought of it.”
“Oh, well—that’s different. But please don’t suppose that I’ve thought of it seriously. It simply happened that that evening—” The only sign of embarrassment she gave was in grasping the greenish-goldish veil with her left hand and pulling it round over her bosom. The great eyes, of which the light made one doubtful as to the color, glowed feverishly, and the long scarlet lips threw at me one of their daring, challenging smiles. “Do you want me to be absolutely frank?”
“We began with frankness, didn’t we? Why shouldn’t we keep it up?”
“Well, it happened that that evening I’d broken off my engagement.”
Not to betray all I had learned by my eavesdropping behind the rose-colored hangings, I merely said, “Indeed?”
“Yes; and so I was a little—well, perhaps a little excited. And anything that happened impressed me more than it would have done ordinarily. If I’ve thought of the way you appeared—and what happened when you did—it’s only been because it was part of the hours right after—” There was another of those smiles that were amusingly apologetic as well as amusingly provocative. “You’re—you’re not married, are you?”
“No.”
“Nor engaged?”