As darkness fell and her face grew indistinct, he found that he had less difficulty in talking. Horsemen had disappeared. The procession of cars and carriages was gone. They jingled through a No-Man’s-Land of whispering leaves and shadows; lamps buoyed their passage like low-hanging stars.
Behind trees on a knoll, lights flashed. She pushed up the trap and spoke to the driver: “Well stop here for dinner.” She turned to Teddy: “Shall we? It’s McGown’s.”
He helped her out As they passed up the steps to the bungalow, he took her arm and felt its shy answering pressure. In the hall she drew away from him.
“Where are you going? Don’t go.”
“Only for a minute. Please, Meester Deek, I want to make myself beautiful for you.”
“But I can’t spare a minute of you. I’ve lost you for so long.”
“Only one little minute,” she pleaded, “but if you don’t want me to be beautiful——”
While she was gone he played tricks to make the time pass quickly. He would see her returning by the time he had counted fifty; no, sixty; no, a hundred. If he walked to the door and looked out into the Park, by the time he turned round she would be waiting for him. At last she came—ten minutes had elapsed; her eyes were shining. He guessed that she had purposely delayed in order to spur her need of him. They seated themselves by a window through which they could watch the goblin-eyes of automobiles darting through the blackness, and the white moon climbing slowly above tattered tree-tops.
She sat with her hand against her throat, gazing at him smilingly.
“What are you thinking, Princess?”