"Say you didn't!"
"Maurice!—Be jealous, if you must! But surely, surely you don't believe——"
"Oh, don't ask me what I believe. I only know I won't have that man hanging about. It was by a mere chance to-day that I came round earlier; he might have been here for hours, without my suspecting it. Who knows if you would have told me either?—Would you have told me, Louise?"
"Oh, how can you be like this! What is the matter with you?"
He put his arms round her, with the old cry. "I can't bear you even to look at another man. For he's in love with you, and has been, ever since you made him crazy by dancing with him as you did."
With his hands on her shoulders, he rested his face on her hair. "Promise me you won't see him again."
Wearily, Louise disengaged herself. "Oh there's always something fresh to promise. I'm tired of it—of being hedged in, and watched, and never trusted."
"Tired of me, you mean."
She looked bitterly at him. "There you are again?"
"Just this once—to set my mind at rest. Just this once, Louise!—darling!"