“Did I?” she asked, with charming naïvété.
“Why, have you forgotten that night already?” I said, in a melancholy tone.
“Don’t be so lugubrious,” she said. “You have to amuse me. You mustn’t remember all my promises.”
“Are they so unsubstantial?” I asked.
“No, they’re not, sir!” she said, stamping her foot in affected anger. “But what do you say to my keeping your violets so long, Frank?”
“What do I say?” I repeated after her, looking my delight into her eyes; when, a frantic chord, struck deep down in the bass by Mrs Clyde, marking the finish of some piece of Wagner’s, recalled us both to every-day life.
As nobody else had yet arrived, Min challenged me to a game of chess.
I allowed her to win the first game easily.
She pouted, saying that she supposed I thought it below my dignity to put forth my best energies in playing against a lady!
Thereupon, I did exert myself; but, she was just as provokingly dissatisfied.