“I’m afraid I am rather a monster. It is sometimes a nuisance.”
“Ah, don’t say that. I am quite sure the first Adam was as big as you, and Eve was frightened and ran away, but she wouldn’t for the world have had him an inch smaller. And every true Eve since has gloried in the man who towered above her, and was a little terrifying in his strength. Don’t let them spoil you,” she added with a note of wistfulness, “all the Eves who must needs follow with or without your bidding.”
“I imagine Hal will counteract much of that; and the feeling, when I am with you, that I am just a great, brainless, useless animal.”
“No; you are not that; and you are quite extraordinarily unspoilt as yet. Come and see me again soon, when you’ve nothing better to do.”
“How soon?”
He was looking hard into her face now, almost as if he were only just fully realising her beauty, and she flushed a little as she met his ardent eyes and answered:
“As soon as you like.”
“Friday is my first free evening.”
“The come and dine here quietly. I shall not act this week at all. I shall run down to the sea from Saturday to Monday.”
She had intended to go on Friday afternoon, but with his nearness all Flip Denton’s sage advice vanished from her mind, and instead of running away as he urged, she went a step nearer to the temptation.