“Three!—will you yield?”
“No!”
“Four——”
Quick as thought, she dropped one hand on the back of the davenport; there was a flash of slippers, lingerie and silk, and she was across and racing for the door, now fair before her, leaving him only the echo of a mocking laugh.
“Five!” she counted, tauntingly, from the hall. “Why don’t you continue, sir?” 184
“I stop with four,” he said. “I’ll be good for to-night, Elaine—you need have no further fear.”
She tossed her head ever so slightly, while a bantering look came into her eyes.
“I’m not much afraid of you, now—nor any time,” she answered. “But you have more courage than I would have thought, Colin—decidedly more!”