"Well, it's one I intend to assert," she answered, suddenly goaded by his imperious attitude.
"You've deliberately fooled me," he said savagely.
"No, I haven't really," she replied, patient again under the pain in the fierce, restless eyes watching her. "I like you immensely, but not enough to marry you."
"I suppose I ought to feel flattered," he said cuttingly.
Pansy laid a hand on his sleeve with a little soothing, conciliatory gesture.
"Don't be so horrid, Raoul. Do try and see things as I see them. I didn't mean to say 'yes' last night; but when you held me in your arms and kissed me there was nothing else I could do."
His name on her lips, her touch on his arm, broke through his seethe of cold anger.
"And if I held and kissed you again, what then?" he asked, suddenly melting.
"Here in the 'garish light of day' it wouldn't alter my intention in the least," she said. "There are so many things that call me in the daytime. But last night, Raoul, there was only you."
He bent over her, dark and handsome, looking the king the Sultan Casim Ammeh had made him.