"Good child!" he said. "Don't think about it." And she wondered why he looked so pleased.
"Why not?" she asked him. "Please tell me."
"Oh, because it isn't good for you to be always turning yourself inside out; certainly not on my account. Besides, it spoils things. Don't you think so?"
"What things?"
"Oh, please! I'm not here to answer such a lot of puzzling questions. Who has been getting you into such bad habits, while I have been away?"
"Nobody who could answer any of my puzzling questions," she replied, softly; and Paul asked hastily if she would make the coffee. He had fetched her here as an experiment, a kind of test of his own feelings and of hers; and he had a sudden fear lest it should succeed too effectually. She went obediently and did as she was told, and brought him his coffee when it was ready; and he submitted to having sugar in it, since it compelled her to brush his hair with her sleeve as she bent over him with the sugar basin.
"Well?" he asked, in the next pause. She was balancing her spoon on the edge of her cup, with a curious smile on her face.
"Oh, nothing!"
"Nothing must be very interesting, then. But I don't suppose I have any right to know. Have I?"
The spoon dropped on the floor with a clatter.