"Poor boy!" she said, a few minutes later, pushing a lock of hair from his forehead. "I've let you carry that burden when a word from me would have lifted it."
"Has there ever been such a thing as unhappiness in the world, sweetheart?" he said. "I can't remember it. So I don't believe it."
"I'm afraid I've cost you more than I can ever repay you for," she said. "Hal, tell me I've been a little beast!—Oh, no! That's no way to tell it. Aren't you sorry, sir, that you ever saw this room?"
"Finest example of interior architecture I know of. Exact replica of the plumb center of Paradise."
"It's where all your troubles began. You first met me here in this very room."
"Oh, no! My troubles began from the minute I set eyes on you, that day at the station."
"Don't contradict me." She laid an admonitory finger on his lips, then, catching at his hand, gently drew him with her. "Right in that very window-seat there—" She whisked the hangings aside, and brushed McGuire Ellis's nose in so doing.
"Hoong!" snorted McGuire Ellis.
"Oh!" cried Esmé. "Were you there all the time? We—I—didn't know—Have you been asleep?"
"I have been just that," replied the dormant one, yawning.