“You love me! I feel it! I know it!” he repeated fiercely.
With quick resolution he swept her into his arms and kissed her lips again and again. For just an instant he felt her body relax.
The next minute she had freed herself and faced him, her eyes blazing with anger. Her anger was not a pose. He saw to his horror that he had staked all on a mad chance and lost.
He stammered something incoherent and mopped his brow lamely.
“I suppose it’s useless for me to say I’m sorry—”
“Quite,” she said with cold emphasis.
“All right I won’t. Because I’m not sorry I did it. I’m only sorry you resent it. I love you. True love is half madness. I won’t apologize. If I must die for that one moment, it’s worth it.”
“There can be nothing more between us after this,” she said evenly.
He bowed in silence.
“Please play the little farce of polite society before my father and mother as you leave tonight. It’s the only favor I ask of you.”