“But answer me before I go.”
She smiled down at me mockingly, ruffling my hair. “What a hurry he’s in after all these years. Don’t you ever go to bed?”
“Tell me to-night. I must know. I can’t bear the suspense.”
“I put up with it for five years.—— Well, if you won’t go home like a good boy, you won’t. There’s a couch over there.”
She broke from me, leaving me kneeling with my arms empty. As the door opened into the room beyond I had a glimpse of the curtained bed.
I drew my chair closer to the dying fire. Behind the wall I could hear her steps moving up and down as she undressed. Now and then they paused; she was listening for the sound of my departure, uncertain, perhaps, whether I was still there. Some time had elapsed when the door opened gently. I twisted round. Her room was in darkness. She was standing on the threshold. Her feet were bare; she was clad in a white night-robe; across each shoulder, almost to her knees, hung down the red-gold ropes of her braided hair.
“I meant what I said. I’m not going till you tell me.”
Her green eyes met mine roguishly. “A persistent fool to-night,” she said.
As the door was closing I threw after her, “That morning in Venice.... I was going to have asked you to marry me; you were gone....”
Left alone with the last flame flickering in the grate, I watched the little gold shoes.