He laughed harshly. “Can’t you play the game even for five minutes? I understood that it amused you to make a fool of me, but it didn’t end with that. You have made me really love you. Really love you, do you understand?”
As he spoke, they heard peals of distant laughter, and saw six or seven of the people who had been boating scampering across the moonlit lawn toward the nearest park gates.
“They must be going over to the Westerleighs’—we must go, too,” said Lady Harden. “Will you row in?”
Cleeve did not answer; he did not appear to have heard her remark.
After a pause he said, slowly: “You have made me really love you. I don’t know why you did it, for I surely had not hurt you in any way. However, you did it, and you must have had some reason. You found me a boy; you have made me a man. Well—you must love me, too.”
The boat had begun to drift, and was alone on the burnished water.
Lady Harden clasped her hands nervously.
“I must love you! What rot! Come, row to the landing, please. I am going back to the house, and you must go on to the Westerleighs’.”
“Dagny—I say, you must love me, too.”
“You are crazy.”