‘No, no,’ she answered, drawing him a little nearer. ‘Hearts are not so easily broken.’
‘Easily!’ he said. ‘Do you think it’s easy, Claudia, to live as I do? I’m in heaven now, and I’d give my life to be with you for an hour like this. But when I’m away from you, when I see you in that beast Bannister’s arms, and remember the only time I ever kissed you—oh, why were you so kind then, and why are you so cold and cruel now?’
‘Cold? Cruel?’ She stroked his flushed cheek with her soft fingers. ‘I let you kiss me because I thought what a dear, nice handsome boy you were; but I should never have done it if I had thought that you would be so silly after it. If you were not so very silly I should like to kiss you, because it’s a woman’s way to kiss the people that she’s really fond of. But you are so foolish, Paul dear, that I dare not.’
‘I won’t be foolish,’ said Paul, lifting his head, and looking at her.
‘Well,’ she said, ‘will you give me your word of honour to stay here for five minutes after I am gone if I give you just one kiss, and not to beg me for another, and not to try to get into the same carriage with me going home?’
‘Don’t ask me that,’ he besought her.
‘Ah, Paul,’ she said tenderly, ‘don’t you think for a moment that I am a woman, and that this foolish world would talk about me, even with you, if I gave it only the shadow of a chance? Come; I must go now. Promise.’
‘The kiss,’ said Paul.
‘The promise,’ said Miss Belmont.
‘Yes, I promise. If you asked me to leap over the rocks in front of us I’d do it.’