“All right. You won’t take that money?”
“No.”
He was angry. He wanted to shake her. The air was charged with hostility. “I’m sorry,” he said. “You’ve made me feel like a fool.” Rising he left the house. The two little crisp soles remained untasted on their plates.
CHAPTER FOUR
SHIFTS AND STRESSES
1.
IN his irritation and perplexity, he went for a long walk by the shore.
“Confound the girl!” he thought. “What right has she to be so proud! Pride is for those who can afford it. There she was, sick, desperate, without one sou. I saved her from goodness knows what. And now, behold! When she ought to be humble, she throws up her head, turns independent, refuses my further help....”
With his stick he switched savagely at a clump of geraniums that stained a villa wall.
“Confounded fool that I was ever to have anything to do with her. These sudden quixotic impulses! They always lead to trouble. Damn! It was none of my business. Who could have blamed me if I had let her go her own way? And yet ... that would have worried me enormously. Her own way! What would it have been? I’d hate to think of any harm coming to her. No, I feel I am bound to protect her....”
He sat down and stared at the sea. He watched the same wave washing the same rock it had washed for centuries. Its monotonous persistency soothed his spirit.