“We can talk while I work, now.”
She protested. “No, that isn’t honest. I gave you my whole attention. You must pay in the same way. You must do your best to amuse me.”
“Well?”
“Come here, and sit on this log.”
He obeyed. “You deserve better pay,” said he. “I never had a professional model who behaved so well.”
“Do you know, I never did anything so obediently in my whole life,” declared she. “I don’t understand myself.” There was seriousness behind the mirth in the glance she flung at him. “I’m a little afraid of you. I half believe you hypnotize me. You—seem to—to put to sleep my ordinary, every-day self and to wake up one that’s usually asleep—one I’ve only known—until—until recently—as a—a sort of troublesome ghost that haunts me from time to time.”
He, thinking of his picture, was only half attending to her. “But you’ll marry the man with the money, all right,” said he absently.
She startled. “How did you know?” she demanded. “Have you found out who I am?”
“Certainly. You’re Rix, model to Chang.... No, I was joking. I know only what you told me yesterday—or, rather, what you enabled me to guess.”
“And you approve of my marrying—that way?”