"I know you will have your own way, Doris. It is useless for me to interfere; do as you please."
"That is like my old lover, Earle; now I begin to feel at home with you. I did use you very wickedly, but all the time I liked you."
"I know exactly the value of your liking," said Earle, who had determined to be cool and guarded.
She talked to him in the old sweet tones; she gave him the sweetest glances from her lovely eyes; she remembered all the pretty arts and graces which had attracted him most; and Earle, despite his caution, despite his resolve, knew that his heart was on fire again with the glamour and magic of her beauty; knew that every pulse was throbbing with passion; and she knew, as well as though he had put it into words, that the old charm was returning, only a thousand times stronger.
She laid her white hand on his arm, and he shrank shuddering from the touch. She only smiled—her time would come.
"I shall not return to the house where I have been living. The reason is that I wish them to forget me. I shall not like, when I am Lady Doris Studleigh, to be recognized by them."
That pride was so exactly like her, he understood it well.
"You can return to Florence, if you like," she continued, with the air of a queen; "but if you wish to please me, you will walk on with me to the nearest railway station, and let us go at once to Genoa. We can travel from Genoa to London."
"But I have left my things at the hotel," he said.
"Is there anything particular among them, Earle?"