"I do not think I am offering you any."
"Hardly; even my egotism will not permit me to believe so. An iceberg
would seem warm in comparison. Yet, at least, there is no present
occasion for our quarrelling. Sit down."
"Thank you, I prefer to remain standing. I presume whatever you may
desire to say will not require much time?"
Farnham leaned forward, decidedly jarred from out his assumed mood of
cold sarcasm. He had expected something different, and his face
hardened with definite purpose.
"That depends," he said soberly, "on your frame of mind. You do not
appear extremely delighted to meet me again. Considering that it is
now fully three years since our last conversation, you might strive to
be, at least outwardly, cordial."
She gathered up her skirts within her left hand, and turned calmly
toward the door.
"Is that all?"
The man leaped impulsively to his feet, his cheeks burning with sudden
animation, his previous mask of reckless indifference entirely torn
away.
"Hell, no!" he exclaimed warmly, as instantly pausing when she wheeled
swiftly about and faced him firmly. "No, it is not all. Of course, I
had a special purpose in sending for you. Yet I cannot help feeling a
natural curiosity. Tell me, what are you doing here?"
"That is quite easily seen; I am endeavoring to earn a living."
"A nice, quiet, respectable sort of a place you have chosen, certainly.
It is about the last spot I should ever have expected to discover you
in, knowing as I do your former puritanical morals. Your tastes must
have greatly changed under the spur," and he laughed lightly, in
mockery.
Miss Norvell's lips curled in unconcealed contempt, her eyes darkening
with indignation.
"My present associations were not entered into from choice but from
necessity. With you, I understand, it is deliberate choice."
The man stood undecided, fingering the edge of the curtain, vaguely
realizing that he was merely injuring his own cause by continuing to
anger her, yet far too deeply hit to remain entirely silent.
"You seem inclined to strike out as hard as ever," he retorted, yet in
tones of manifest regret. "But just now there is not the slightest
occasion for any bitterness. I am perfectly prepared to do the square
thing, and if we can only pull together pleasantly for a little while,
it will prove far better for both of us."
"In plainer words, you chance just now to have some special use for me?"