“To-night, if you wish to.”
“To-night, then, I want to very much.”
And again her laugh, the laugh of a little girl, rang clear in the alley. She touched her horse lightly with her riding whip and old Sultan went off at a gallop. As I urged on my horse to rejoin her, I was stupefied by the speed of my conquest.
“Look at those little humbugs who are so reserved and discreet,” I thought. “At the first word of love they catch fire.” For the meaning of our departure, emphasized by the equivocal tone I had employed, was, I thought, very explicit. No one could possibly have been deceived by it.
Then, as suddenly as she had started off, my companion and accomplice halted.
“We must go home at once,” she said.
“What for?” I asked.
“Why, to let father and mother know we are going away.”
I opened my eyes in astonishment, which she interpreted at once.
“Let us go on,” she said, “I see clearly that it was only a joke. You were amusing yourself with my credulity. And besides;—”