"Sit down and drink—and let that be enough!" He snatched a bottle hastily and filled the glasses to the brim.
"Ho!" said the girl, with a stare. "Drink—is that all you've come for?"
"Yes!"
She stepped down from the sofa, her features quivering with scorn.
"Well, you're a nice one, you are. If they were all like that—drink and pay the bill and off again—and not so much as a … well, you're the first I've met of that sort—hope you'll enjoy it!"
She drank, and set down the glass, a sneer still quivering about the corners of her mouth.
Then, leaning her elbows on the table, she gazed at him thoughtfully under her lowered lashes. Olof smoked furiously, till his cigarette looked like a streak of fire.
The girl sat down on the sofa, at the farther end, and went on with a maudlin tenderness in her voice:
"Why are you like that—a man like you? I wouldn't now for money, whatever you offered me. Can't you see I'm in love with you? Or d'you suppose perhaps a girl—a girl in a place like this—can't love? Ah, but she can, and more than any of the other sort, maybe. I'd like to love a real man just for once—I've had enough of beasts. Stay with me to-night—won't you…?"
Olof shuddered in disgust.