Not for a second had he any intention of obeying her; one might almost have believed that he had not heard her command. He gazed at her with indescribable pleasure such as he had never before felt in the presence of any woman.
She repeated in more imperious accents: “Go away!”
“No,” he said.
“Then I shall go away myself.”
“If you go away I shall follow you,” he declared. “We will go back to the convent together.”
She turned as if to fly. He caught her arm.
“Don’t touch me!” she said indignantly, freeing [[122]]herself. “I forbid you to touch me. I forbid you to come near me!”
Surprised by her vehemence, he said: “But why?”
In a low voice she replied: “I have a horror of you.”
The answer was so astonishing that he could not refrain from smiling.