"Then must I say it all over again? I _really_ want you to take it in, Chetwode," she said pleadingly.
"Say it all over again, and as much more as you like, dear."
"And then will you tell me you haven"t heard?"
He threw down the newspaper.
"Very likely. I shall have been looking at your lips."
CHAPTER XXV
THE QUARREL
"The other day," said Sylvia, "you were perfectly sweet to me. I was really happy; I knew you loved me, and that was quite enough. Now again I feel that miserable doubtfulness."
"May I ask," said Woodville, who was sitting in front of a pile of papers, while Sylvia was leaning her head on her hand opposite him at the table, "how it is that you"re here again?"
He spoke in a tone that was carefully not affectionate and that he tried not to make irritable.
"Certainly. I arranged to go out with Felicity--before papa--and then I telephoned to her that I had a headache."
"Isn"t that what you did on Thursday?"
"No; on Thursday I said I was going to the dentist. And came in here instead."
"Do you intend to do this often?" he asked.
"Yes, continually."
He rustled the papers.
"Why shouldn"t I? Don"t you like it?" she said.
"I can"t help thinking it"s rather risky. Suppose Felicity comes and finds you in blooming health?"
"Surely I can recover from my headache if I like? Besides, she telephoned to me to get some aspirin. She won"t expect me to be down till this afternoon, and she won"t come till then."
"_Did_ you get some?"
"Frank, what idiotic questions you ask!"
There was a pause.
"Don"t you think, dear," she said, "this is very jolly, to arrange to have two hours like this alone together?"
"Oh, delightful! But I don"t see what"s the good of it, as we"re placed."
"Not to have a nice quiet talk?"
"I have nothing to talk about." He seemed nervous.
"Are you going to be like this when we"re married?" asked Sylvia in a disappointed voice.
"Not at all!"
"Oh, I"m _so_ glad! If you"ll excuse my saying so, Frank darling, you seem to me to have a rather sulky disposition."
He seized the papers and threw them on the floor.
"Sulky? _I, sulky?_ You never made a greater mistake. You"re not a good judge of character, Sylvia. Don"t go in for it. Leave it alone. You"ll never make anything of it, you haven"t the gift. As it happens, I have a very good temper, except that now and then I"m "rather violent when roused," as the palmists say, but sulky--never!"
Sylvia seemed to have made up her mind to be irritating. She laughed a good deal. (She looked most lovely when laughing.)
"What are you laughing at?" he asked.
"At you. Pretending to be violent, good-tempered. Of course you"re neither. What you think is self-control is merely sulkiness."
His eyes flashed.
"What do you want?" he said, in an undertone.
"Why, I want you to be sensible and jolly; like you were that day at Richmond."
"How can I be like I was that day at Richmond? It was a lovely day; we were in the country; it was our escapade. It was an exceptional case."
"Oh dear! Then will you only be _like that_ as an exceptional case?"
"My dear child, you don"t understand. When a man has--has work to do,"
he said rather hesitatingly.
She laughed again.
"Work! It must be frightfully important work if you throw it on the floor from temper."
He bore this well, and answered, picking up the papers, "Important or not, it"s what I"m here for--it"s what your father pays me for. How on earth he can think I"m the slightest use to him I can"t imagine."
"Oh, he knows you"re not, really, dear," said Sylvia soothingly. "But he"s grown used to you, and to have a secretary makes him feel he"s a sort of important public man. Don"t you see?"
"What! I"m _not_ useful to him?" Woodville asked angrily. "I should like to know----" Here he stopped.
"I suppose you think he won"t know what to do without you when we"re married," said Sylvia.
"Oh, I do wish you"d leave off saying that, Sylvia."
"Saying what?"