He was bronzed and looked well, he was more expansive also and plainly very glad to see her.
He held her close to him and bent to kiss her lips; but some undefined reluctance came over her, and she moved her head aside.
Something in her resented the caress. Her lips were now for Denzil and for no other man. It was she who was recalcitrant and turned the conversation into everyday things.
The de la Paule family had been summoned for luncheon and the afternoon passed among them all, and then the evening and the tête-à-tête dinner came.
John knocked at the door of her room while she was dressing. Her maid had just finished her hair and she wondered at herself that she should experience a sense of shyness and have to suppress an inclination to refuse to let him come in. And once any of these little intimate happenings would have given her joy!
She kept Adams there, and hurried into her tea-gown and then walked towards the door.
John had not spoken much, but stood by the fire.
How changed things were! Once he had to be persuaded and enticed to stay with her at such moments, and it was he who now seemed to desire to do so, and it was she who discouraged his wishes!
In Amaryllis' mind an agitation grew. What could she say to him presently—if he suggested coming to sleep in her room?
The knowledge in her breast rose as an insurmountable barrier between them.