"Come," he said, "ask me nicely."
"Please, then. _Please_ give it me."
He gave it, bowing profoundly over her hand as she took it.
"I wouldn"t look into your dear little secrets for the world," he said.
They sat down amicably.
"You"ll let me stay with you a little while?"
"Please do. Won"t you have one of my cigarettes?"
He took one, turning it in his fingers and smiling at it--a lingering, sentimental smile.
"I think I know your secret," he said presently.
"Do you?" Her mind rushed to Ralph.
"I think so. And I think you know mine."
"Yours?"
"Yes. Mine. We can"t go on living like this, so close to each other, without knowing. We may try to keep things from each other, but we can"t. I feel as if you"d seen everything."
She said to herself: "He"s thinking of Mrs. Levitt."
"I don"t suppose I"ve seen anything that matters," she said.
"You"ve seen what my life is here. You can"t have helped seeing that f.a.n.n.y and I don"t hit it off very well together."
"f.a.n.n.y"s an angel."
"You dear little loyal thing.... Yes, she"s an angel. Too much of an angel for a mere man. I made my grand mistake, Barbara, when I married her."
"She doesn"t think so, anyhow."
"I"m not so sure. f.a.n.n.y knows she"s got hold of something that"s too--too big for her. What"s wrong with f.a.n.n.y is that she can"t grasp things. She"s afraid of them. And she can"t take serious things seriously. It"s no use expecting her to. I"ve left off expecting."
"You don"t understand f.a.n.n.y one bit."
"My dear child, I"ve been married to her more than seventeen years, and I"m not a fool. You"ve seen for yourself how she takes things. How she belittles everything with her everlasting laugh, laugh, laugh. In time it gets on your nerves."
"It would," said Barbara, "if you don"t see the fun of it."
"You can"t expect me to see the fun of my own funeral."
"Funeral? Is it as bad as all that?"
"It has been as bad as all that--Barbara."
He brooded.
"And then you came, with your sweetness. And your little serious face--"
"_Is_ my face serious?"
"Very. To me. Other people may think you frivolous and amusing. I daresay you are amusing--to them."
"I hope so."
"You hope so because you want to hide your real self from them. But you can"t hide it from me. I"ve seen it all the time, Barbara."
"Are you sure?"
"Quite, quite sure."
"I wish I knew what it looked like."
"That"s the beauty and charm of you, my dear, that you don"t know."
"What a nice waistcoat you"ve got on," said Barbara.
He looked gratified. "I"m glad you like it I put it on for your birthday."
"You mean," she said, "my adoption day."
He winced.
"It _is_ good," she said, "of you and f.a.n.n.y to adopt me. But it won"t be for very long. And I want to earn my own living all the same."
"I can"t think of letting you do that."
"I must. It won"t make any difference to my adoption."
He scowled. So repugnant to him was this subject that he judged it would be equally distasteful to Barbara.
"It was f.a.n.n.y"s idea," he said.
"I thought it would be."
"You didn"t expect me to have paternal feelings for you, Barbara?"
"I didn"t _expect_ you to have any feelings at all."
The wound made him start. "My poor child, what a terrible thing for you to say."
"Why terrible?"