“I must go,” she said. “I have a thousand things to do this evening.”
“To play at, you mean,” he corrected her. “You don’t really do very much, do you? The women don’t in your world.”
“You are polite,” she answered lightly. “Please to show me the way out.”
“In a moment,” he said.
She was inclined to rebel. They had moved a little from the window, and were standing in a darker part of the room. She felt his fingers upon her wrist. She would have given the world to have been able to wrench it away, but she could not. She stood there submissively, her breath coming quickly, her eyes compelled to meet his.
“Stay for a moment longer,” he begged. “I want to talk to you for a little while about this.”
“There is no time now,” she said hurriedly. “It is an inexhaustible subject.”
“Inexhaustible indeed,” he answered, with an enigmatic laugh.
She read his thoughts. She knew very well what was in his mind, what was almost on his lips, and she struggled to be free of him.