"Power."
"Not to be bored."
They smiled by common consent.
"And now we know no more than we did before," he said.
She stretched out her slender hand against the purple folds of her gown, and her eyes lingered on the jewels that she held caressingly before them—a look that did not escape the man.
"By thunder, you're the strangest thing I've run into," he said, shifting his legs.
"On each of the eight times we have been alone," she said, smiling, "you have made precisely that same discovery. Did you forget?"
"I'd like to know something about you," he said.
"How old I am—about my husband—what I am doing here—am I rich—what's my past—and so on. Consider all these questions asked and refused—for the ninth time. And now, what—why did you come here?"
He put aside his cigar impatiently, propelled himself to his feet, and came forward until his knee touched the couch. She looked up, pleasantly aware of so much brute strength held in leash above her.