I was silent.
"Because," said Clelia, laughing, "I think she'd like to have you do it. She'd slay me if she heard me. And she'd slay herself before she'd ever let you.... And yet—it is odd!—I'm willing to learn how it feels to be kissed, but I am not in love; and Thusis likes you and won't admit it:—you've turned my sister's head and she's horribly afraid of you; and never, never will she let you kiss her. And there you are!"
After a long silence she looked up at me shyly:
"Shall we?" she asked naïvely.
"I could show you how it's done," said I.
And then, just at the moment when the deed was about to be accomplished, a shadow fell across the floor. I looked up. Thusis stood there.
Her beautiful face flamed as she met our eyes.
Clelia stood up with a light laugh. "My first lesson!" she exclaimed, "and already ended before I learned a word of it! Take your young man, sister! He's quite as disappointing as his solemn friend!"
And she went into the pantry taking with her our empty glasses.
"So that is the sort of man you are," said Thusis calmly.