Dulcie’s voice faded to a whisper; Barres, seated beside her, leaned nearer, bending his head to listen.
“And you,” she murmured again, “—if you want me.”
“I always want you,” he whispered laughingly, in return.
Esmé regarded the scene with weariness and chagrin.
“Come on,” he said languidly to Mandel, “we’ll buy her some flowers for the evil she does us. She’ll need ’em; she’ll be finished before this amateur sculptor finishes his blooming Arethusa.”
Mandel lingered:
“I’m going up to Northbrook in a day or two, Barres. If you change—change Dulcie’s mind for her, just call me up at the Adolf Gerhardt’s.”
“Dulcie will call you up if she changes my mind.”
Dulcie laughed.
When they had gone, Barres said: