She walked into the small inner hall and looked round her with unaffected interest.
"I've never been in a man's rooms before," she remarked and Eric knew that she was speaking the truth. An extraordinary sense of power came to him, rushing to his head. The tired eyes and wistful mouth, the haggard cheeks, the cloud of fine hair, the white arms and slender hands fed his hungry love of beauty. And he had attracted her until she lay at his mercy.…
"I want to see everything, Eric," she said gently.
He hardly heard the words; but her tone was confiding, and she slipped her hand into his. A latent sense of the dramatic came to his rescue.
"You seem to have put yourself pretty completely into my power," he observed, closing the front door behind them.
"I know you so much better than you know me," she answered.
"I don't quite follow."
She laughed gently to herself, then put her arms round his neck and kissed him.
"No.… And you won't for years … not till I've educated you.… Am I right in thinking that you've forgotten all about my soda-water?"