‘Who?’ he exclaimed, so eagerly that she looked at him in surprise. He was skirting dangerous ground, and he knew it and enjoyed it.
‘Avice Wellfield, if she were old enough.’
‘Miss Wellfield?’ he echoed, and looked at her with a look she did not understand. ‘Miss Wellfield before Fräulein Wilhelmi, certainly. Yes, there is a wonderful charm about her. If you were not so strict in your definition of “won,” I should say she had won me already by the mystery and poetry which seems to envelop her. But you will not allow me to say “won,” of a feeling like that. In the same way,’ he continued composedly, ‘I should say that you had won me long ago by your simplicity.’
‘By my simplicity?’ echoed Sara, not giving a thought to the serious and decidedly personal turn the conversation was taking; feeling only that it was a pleasant break in the far from easy or pleasant current of her reflections while alone.
‘Yes; your almost classical simplicity and freedom from every sort of affectation—a simplicity which extends to your whole nature, and which is so engrained that you are quite unconscious of it. My telling you of it will not cause you to lose it. I defy you to lose it. I should not wonder if some day it led you into doing or saying something which conventional people would call outrageous.’
‘You are remarkably candid this afternoon,’ she said, much amused. ‘I do not see why you should have a monopoly of it. I will tell you what it was in you that “won” me, as you call it.’
‘And what was that?’ he asked tranquilly, though he knew that never in his life before had he been on such dangerous and difficult ground. The temptation of hearing her tell him that she liked him, and why she liked him, was irresistible.
‘First, the unconsciousness with which you wore your riches and your celebrity—for you are celebrated, you cannot deny it; and next, your trustworthiness.’
‘Trustworthiness!’ he echoed, as she had done.
‘Yes; you are trustworthy. “My telling you about it will not cause you to lose it. I defy you to lose it. I should not wonder if some day it drove you to doing or saying something which more conventional people would call”—foolish.’