“Oh, but, look here!” he cried. “We’re sailing to-morrow for Halifax. I’ve only got this one night!”
“But you’ll come back to New York, won’t you?”
“Oh, some day!” he answered bitterly. “God knows when—I don’t. We’re running all over after cargoes. We may come back here from Halifax, and we may go anywhere. It may be months before I see you again.”
“Would that be so awful?” asked Pem, with a smile.
But he didn’t smile.
“Yes,” he said. “It would—for me!”
Pem was annoyed at her own response to his emotion. She wanted to laugh at him, and she could not. This was the worst sort of nonsense—the sort of thing Nickie was always telling her about. Nickie would call this “thrilling.” Well, Pem didn’t.
“I’m sorry for you,” she said ironically; but, as if there were magic in his eyes, the words turned to truth when she looked at him. “Please don’t be silly!” she added, in a quite different voice—gentle, almost appealing.
“The only silly thing would be to pretend it wasn’t like this,” said he. “I didn’t want it to be this way, but—it just happened. As soon as I saw you—”
Pem jumped up.