Once only; he had sufficient self-control to let her go when he had kept his word. Dolly pulled out her handkerchief to brush it away. If she had had a knife she would have used it against him; yet behind her anger there was an unwilling respect. That immense strength which she could not defy, the strength of will as well as the strength of body, had left its impression. Farquhar was right in thinking that he had stamped his claims upon her memory. It was better that she should say, as she did, “I hate you from the bottom of my heart,” than that she should part from him in a mood of calm and confident triumph.
“Well, I love you,” he answered her, simply. “There; I beg your pardon. You’ll not forgive me, of course, but—well, there are times when I wonder if I’m mad.”
“You’ve made that excuse before; try something fresh.”
“Did I? It’s the truth. Dolly, you—” He put up his hand over his eyes. “Sheer madness; or say I’m drunk. Dolly, what—what eyes you’ve got!”
That was the last she heard from him that night. They parted, he taking a footpath to The Lilacs. He forgot his bicycle, and Dolly, seeing it, wheeled it down to Fanes to the safe custody of the tool-shed, not without some pride in an affection which could make a man oblivious of a very handsome, free-wheeled, Bowden-braked, acetylene-lamped, silver-plated, thirty-guinea Singer. At that hour Lucian’s chances were poor.
“Where have you been?” was Bernard’s greeting when she came into the parlour. “Merton’s been here, and left a note for you.”
“Did you see him in those slippers?” exclaimed Dolly, pointing at the purple cross-stitched pansies which spread their blossoms over Bernard’s instep. Bernard looked at them himself.
“They’re all right; they haven’t got any holes,” he said.
“I’m sure gentlemen don’t wear such things. In the evening they wear—they wear pumps.”
“They may wear pumps or they may wear buckets,” Bernard responded. “I guess I don’t much care. Old Merton wears slippers, for I’ve seen ’em on him. You open the letter and see what Mrs. Merton says—if she writes so that you can understand her, that is.”