"I suppose!..."
"It's so absurd to go rushing about like this. I should have thought Gilbert would want to stay in town now that his play is on. Is it a success? I haven't looked at the papers, but then I never do. I can't read newspapers ... they're so dull. This tea is nice. And it's much nicer in town now than it can possibly be in Ireland. Besides, I don't want you to go!"
He let her chatter on, hoping that she would exhaust her interest in his visit to Ireland and begin to talk of something else, but he did not know that Cecily had greater tenacity than might appear from the incoherence of her conversation. She held on to a subject until it was settled irrevocably. She looked very charming as she sat opposite to him, and he wondered how Jimphy could be so careless of her loveliness. The sunlight shining through the window above her head kindled her hair so that the ripples of it shone like gold, and the delicate sunburnt flush of her cheeks deepened in the soft glow. He put out his hand and touched her fingers. "Beautiful Cecily!" he said, and she smiled because she liked to be told how beautiful she was.
"But you're going to Ireland," she said.
He did not answer.
"You say you'd do anything for me," she proceeded, "but when I ask you not to go to Ireland, you refuse. If you really love me!..."
"I do love you, Cecily!"
"Well, why don't you stay in town! It's so queer to go away the moment you get to know me!" She began to laugh.
"What's the joke?" he asked.
"Oh, I've just remembered how little we know of each other. You kissed me the first time you came to my house!"