The girl’s mood took flame:
“There are things a man knows without the telling,” she said. “I would not give a sigh for a man who——”
She turned and gazed out of the window; and added with lowered voice:
“I had better not say what I was going to say; but—your lips provoke me—to—say things.”
Noll watched her for awhile—the exquisite skin, the undisciplined full red mouth, the handsome head. He found a strange pleasure in the nearness of her splendid beauty.
She turned to him suddenly; caught the lingering admiration in his eyes:
“I should like to know exactly what you were thinking,” she said, commandingly; “do you think you dare tell me?”
“I think I dare,” he said lightly; and added seriously: “But I would rather not.”
“I want to know,” she said.
“I was wondering whether a beautiful woman’s beauty is as much pleasure to herself as it is to——”