Still she hesitated; but finally set to with an appetite. She had a single glass of wine, which brought a warmth to her cheek and a glow to her eyes. I think it made her generous to me in the matter of leavings, for I made quite a good meal after she had ended and withdrawn, and I finished the bottle of wine. After which I followed her into the sitting-room, where she sat luxuriously smoking one of my cigarettes.
“Now,” I said, “if it pleases you, and when, the bed is inviting for a siesta, the view from the window is benign, and my purchases to your order are all spread out on the counterpane—all, that is to say, save the two costumes, which are to arrive this afternoon.”
She opened her eyes. “Why do you want me gone?”
“I have some tidying-up to do,” I said. “I must dispose my effects more suitably to the entertaining of so distinguished a visitor.”
“I do not want anything touched,” she answered. “I like them best as they are.”
“But the litter, the disorder, the utter absence of method in the arrangement?”
“If that is all, do not alter them for me.”
“It is not all, nevertheless. I have my own bed to prepare.”
“Your own!—Ah, true! I forgot. Well, I will go, and ascertain to what horrors you have committed me.”
That was gracious; but I remained unruffled in my self-confidence. She did not appear again during the whole afternoon, and I amused myself over what makeshifts I could contrive for my personal comfort. There was a settee in the salle-à-manger, tattered but roomy, which, with plentiful rugs, would serve me sufficiently for a bed; and my washing could be done in the kitchen. The costumes were delivered in the course of the afternoon, and I left them at my guest’s door, with a knock, and an intimation that I was going out to buy the dinner. She did not answer, and I concluded that she was asleep.