“Oh, well, you know what they say about old love.... It was all over at one time, but now....”
“I see,” said Elise.
Then said Rolandsen, magnificently polite, “I can’t help saying you’ve never been so lovely as you are to-night! And then your dress, that dark-red velvet dress....”
He felt very pleased with himself after that speech; no one could ever imagine the least unrest behind it.
“You didn’t seem to care so very much for her,” said Elise.
He saw that her eyes were dewed, and he winced. A little strangeness in her voice, too, confused him, and the look on his face changed suddenly.
“Where’s your splendid coolness now?” she asked, and smiled.
“You’ve taken it,” he said in a low voice.
Then suddenly she stroked his hand, a single touch, and left him. She hurried in through the rooms, seeing none and hearing nothing, only hurrying on. In the passage stood her brother, and he called to her; she turned her all-smiling face full towards him, and the tears dripped from her lashes; then she ran upstairs to her room.