When they re-entered the house, Susie left them. The count stayed only a short time, during which Clara tried to overcome her repugnance to speak of the divorce—that hideous divorce, that was ever in her thoughts; but she could not. If anything outside of themselves could have broken down the invisible barrier that separated these two, Min on this occasion certainly would have accomplished it. As Paul rose to go, she climbed up on the head of the sofa beside where he stood, and taking the ends of his long moustache in her dimpled hands, she pressed her little lips to his very demonstratively. Then jumping down with a bound, she ran to Clara, and standing on tip-toe beside her chair, she kissed “auntie,” laughing, as she exclaimed, “Oh, auntie, am I not good?”
“Why, my child, are you specially good just now?”
“Because I’ve given you the sweetest kiss! Oh, you don’t see,” persisted Min. “Why, I’ve given you Paul’s own kiss, and you didn’t know it!”
“You insufferable magpie!” exclaimed Clara, blushing in spite of herself. “Go away now and don’t come back—hear?” Min, much discomfited, shot a Parthian arrow as she edged toward the door, where she turned while hunting for a chocolate-drop in the bottom of a little white paper-bag, and having crammed it into her mouth, said, “I don’t care, I don’t; auntie don’t like Paul’s kisses, but Min does; so!”
The count laughed quietly, and commenced at once to talk of some new plans for the stage of the theatre. “May I bring them for you to see this evening,” he asked.
“I should like to see them; but do not make any excuse to come. Come freely whenever you wish. That will please me best.”
“I thank you. That is very gracious, but the margin is wide—whenever I wish. You do not know,” he said, passing her hand to his lips, “how boundless and insatiable are my wishes. I even wish to create wishes sometimes; but that is when I am not wise. You know the one supreme desire of my heart, embracing and holding in abeyance all others, is that I may be worthy of Clara. The dear words that you wrote me, the written page just as I saw it, is burned into my memory. I can imagine no sweeter praise than that ‘in no way have I ever offended you in the slightest word, or tone, or motion.’ You see how I remember.” He would have said more, but Clara was troubled. He could almost hear her heart beating as she answered, without looking directly in his face, as she spoke, “And yet it was only a negative praise. It seems to me there were other words more worthy of remembering.”
“You are right; but not even a lover’s vanity could justify him in repeating those.”
“You have no vanity, Paul. You have no imperfections; or if you have, it will be my fault if you ever manifest them—no, I don’t mean that: I mean if you ever manifest any faults, they must be new possibilities created by my folly. No—don’t answer. Go now and return by-and-by.” Paul kissed her hand again, and with the pressure of his lips came the words, just above a whisper, “Tu es adorable.”
“Oh, he’s getting very bold,” said Clara to Susie, who entered the moment the count left, and she involuntarily looked at the fingers of her right hand.