He put his fingers between his lips and whistled. It made an ear-splitting sound in the coupe. Then he grinned.
Audrey laughed happily. “All right! I’ll shut up. I just want you to know.”
“Like Hitler! Where the blow will be struck—when and how.”
“Yes. Exactly. And you’ll be paralyzed into submission by the very fact that you do know. At first you’ll love me because I’m a nice dish. After all, hard work, long winter evenings, the need for relaxation, Muskogewan morals, coupled with the fact that the boys are all away and the town is loaded with dashing daughters who will bar no holds even to monopolize you for an evening. I mean, there’s bound to be somebody so it might as well be me—”
He raised his hands to whistle again.
“Don’t stop me. I am too concentrated to be jealous. You will find the daughters are delightful. I have only one problem.”
“I’m glad there’s just one. I suppose it’s—my acquiescence ?”
“No. That isn’t a problem. That’s a pleasant prospect. The thing is, my family has absolutely forbidden me to see you—ever. Except, of course, in public, when it’s unavoidable. And there is nothing whatever in the way I feel that will make seeing you in public of any use to me at all!”
He exhaled slowly. “Look, Audrey. I don’t know what you’re really trying to say to me. I don’t know how much of this is a game and how much is genuine. Or seems genuine to you now. I doubt if many guys have sat through a session like this—unless they’ve sat through it with you. If it’s a line—believe me, it is nonpareil! If you think you mean all this, then for heaven’s sake think some more! I kissed you last night. I enjoyed it. Any man who didn’t enjoy it should be exiled from human society! I have come here to work. Nothing about me matters except that work. Every hour I spend in Muskogewan makes my job harder to do. You’re hell-bent to add more than your share of difficulty—”
“I’m not. I’m hell-bent to see to it that you do your job—whatever that really is—to see that you realize yourself.”