"I 'm not a child," Dreghorn laughed. "It is n't anything. Come on, Irene."
They left the store together, and, as was his wont with favored customers, Li Sin saw them to the door. The girl was flushed deep with mortification, and she shot the Manchu a mute appeal of apology. Dreghorn smiled again.
"Au revoir, my poetical friend," he laughed.
"Good-by!" answered Li Sin, gravely.
Li Sin saw little of Irene Johns for the next six weeks. Once she came into the store, but she was nervous and flushed, as though she thought the Manchu would hold against her the insults Dreghorn had offered him. But he took pains to show her that he and she were as close friends as ever. She was silently grateful, but still nervous.
"Mr. Dreghorn will be back in six months?" the Manchu said.
"In six months," she answered listlessly. "He is gone to Abyssinia."
"And you will be married soon after?"
"Immediately he comes back, he insists," she said.
The glamour and hypnotism and force of the man's presence no longer enthralled her, Li Sin could see. She was fearful of the step she was taking. But she was certain it was going to take place. Once Dreghorn returned, the quality of his masterfulness would grind down all opposition, even were she to show any.