'There was one other way,' Logotheti continued. 'I could have proposed
that you should go into partnership with me, which is what you yourself
are proposing now. But in the eyes of the world I confess that might
look intimate, to say the least of it. Don't you think so too?' 'You're the most plausible person I ever listened to!' Margaret almost
laughed, though her anger had not subsided.
'Will you leave things as they are and forget all about this business?
What has been done cannot possibly be undone now. Won't you separate me
from it in your thoughts? You can, if you try. You know, I'm two people
in one. So are you. I'm Logotheti the financier, and I'm Logotheti the
man. You are Margaret Donne, and you are Señorita da Cordova, on the
very eve of being famous--and then, I think you are some thing else
which I don't quite understand, but which is like my fate, for I cannot
escape from you, whether I see you, or only dream of you.' Margaret was silent, and looked at the Aphrodite while she sat on the
arm of the big chair. She might have breathed a little faster if she
had known that the two doors through which she had entered, and which
had closed so silently and surely after her, were as sound-proof as six
feet of earth. She would not have been afraid, for she was fearless and
confident, but her heart would have beaten a little more quickly at the
thought that she was out of hearing of the world, and in the presence
of a man whose eyes looked at her strangely and whose cheeks were
darkly flushed, who was a good deal nearer to the primitive human
animal than most men are, and in whom the main force of nature was
awake and hungry.
'I don't want you to make love to me just now,' she said, swinging her
foot a little as she sat. 'You've done something that has hurt me very
much, and has made me almost wish that I might never see you again
after this time. I wish you could find a way of undoing it--I'm sure
there is a way.' Unconsciously wise, she had checked his pulse for a moment, and she
looked at him calmly and shook her head. With a sudden and impatient
movement he rose, turned away from her and began to walk up and down at
a little distance, his head bent and his hands behind him.
Though the air in the high room was pure, it was still and hot, for the
late spring afternoon had turned sultry all at once; the fluid of a
near storm was fast condensing to the point of explosion.