"Trevor, you are mad. Let me get up."
I rose myself, and left her free to get up. She sat up on the couch, white and trembling.
"Now you are going to say you won't come to me any more, I suppose?" I said angrily. The nervous excitement of the moment was so great; there was such a wild booming in my ears I could hardly hear my own voice.
She looked up. The tears welled into her luminous blue eyes.
"How unkind you are! and how unjust! Of course I shall come, must come every day if you want it till the Phryne is done. You don't know how I love you."
I took her dear little hand and kissed it.
"I am sorry," I said. "Forgive me, but you must not say such stupid things. Of course you will marry me; why, we are half married already. Most people would say we ought to be."
I turned on the lights and drew the table up to the fire, which I stirred, and began to make the tea.
Viola sat on the edge of the couch in silence, coiling up her hair.
She seemed very pale and tired, and I tried to soothe her with increased tenderness. I made her a cup of tea and came and sat beside her while she drank it. Then I put my arm round her waist and got her to lean against me, and put her soft fair-haired head down on my shoulder and rest there in silence.