“But am I, though? He says so—but it’s only on his own terms; only while I do what he wants! You’ll see ... I’ve a credit of ten thousand dollars ... ten ... thou ... sand ... d’you hear?... placed to my name in a London bank; and not a penny here to bless myself with meanwhile.... Why, Treeshy darling, why, what’s the matter?”
She flung her arms about his neck, and through their innocent kisses he could taste her tears. “What is it, Treeshy?” he implored her.
“I ... oh, I’d forgotten it was to be our last day together till you spoke of London—cruel, cruel!” she reproached him; and through the green twilight of the willows her eyes blazed on him like two stormy stars. No other eyes he knew could express such elemental rage as Treeshy’s.
“You little spitfire, you!” he laughed back somewhat chokingly. “Yes, it’s our last day—but not for long; at our age two years are not so very long, after all, are they? And when I come back to you I’ll come as my own master, independent, free—come to claim you in face of everything and everybody! Think of that, darling, and be brave for my sake ... brave and patient ... as I mean to be!” he declared heroically.
“Oh, but you—you’ll see other girls; heaps and heaps of them; in those wicked old countries where they’re so lovely. My uncle Kent says the European countries are all wicked, even my own poor Italy....”
“But you, Treeshy; you’ll be seeing cousins Bill and Donald meanwhile—seeing them all day long and every day. And you know you’ve a weakness for that great hulk of a Bill. Ah, if only I stood six-foot-one in my stockings I’d go with an easier heart, you fickle child!” he tried to banter her.
“Fickle? Fickle? Me—oh, Lewis!”
He felt the premonitory sweep of sobs, and his untried courage failed him. It was delicious, in theory, to hold weeping beauty to one’s breast, but terribly alarming, he found, in practice. There came a responsive twitching in his throat.
“No, no; firm as adamant, true as steel; that’s what we both mean to be, isn’t it, cara?”
“Caro, yes,” she sighed, appeased.