"At last!" she exclaimed, with an air of real relief. "There, sit down
opposite to me, please--I want to watch your face."
She was a little paler than usual, and he noticed that she had avoided
talking much to him at luncheon time. And yet he thought that he had
never seen her more beautiful. Something in her face had altered. He
could not tell what it was for he was not a man of much experience as
regarded her sex. Yet, in a vague sort of way, he understood the
change. A certain part of the almost insolent quietness, the complete
self-assurance of her manner, had gone. She was a little more like an
ordinary woman!
"Lady Ruth proved herself an excellent tactician last night," she
remarked. "She has given me an exceedingly uncomfortable few hours.
For you, well for you it was a respite, wasn't it?"
"I don't know that I should call it exactly that," he answered
thoughtfully.
She looked at him steadfastly, almost wistfully.
"Well," she said, "I am not going to make excuses for myself. But the
things which one says naturally enough when the emotions provoke them
sound crude enough in cold blood and colder daylight. We women are
creatures of mood, you know. I was feeling a little lonely and a
little tired last night, and the music stole away my common sense."
"I understand," he murmured. "All that you said shall be forgotten."
"Then you do not understand," she answered, smiling at him.
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