“A beauty-patch that’s a sleep-walker,” he added.
She laughed softly. “And did she tell you that? I’ve been thinking about you—expecting to hear any day that you were sailing to England.”
He shook his head. “I’m like Twinkles. I’m waiting.”
Vashti lifted herself from the cushions and gazed at him intently. “How long are you prepared to wait?”
“D’you mean how long till she comes back?”
“No. For her. She’s young, Teddy, and she asks so much—so many things that life’ll never give her. She’s got to learn. She may keep you waiting a long, long while yet.”
“I’ll wait.” He smiled confidently.
She leant forward and kissed him. “I’m glad. If you win, she’ll be worth it.”
She went back to playing with Twinkles; he watched her in silence.
With her face averted she said: “At first you thought you had only to love and she’d love you in return—wasn’t that it? With you to love her has been a mission; that’s where you’re different from other men. Other men start by flirting—they intend the run-away right up to the last minute; then they find themselves caught But you—— It takes an older woman than Desire to understand. You’re so impetuously in earnest, you almost frighten her. You’re such a dreamer—the way you were about the marriage-box. You always take a woman at her word; and a woman, when she’s loved, means most by the things she leaves unsaid. What happened to the marriage-box after you found me out?”