"As long as you talk shop," she said, "I feel that there is nothing wrong
in our being together; but when you say the other thing--"
"Is it wrong to tell a pretty woman you admire her?"
"Under our circumstances, yes."
He twisted himself around in the seat and sat looking at her.
"The loveliest mouth in the world!" he said, and kissed her suddenly.
She had expected it for at least a week, but her surprise was well done.
Well done also was her silence during the homeward ride.
No, she was not angry, she said. It was only that he had set her thinking.
When she got out of the car, she bade him good-night and good-bye. He only
laughed.
"Don't you trust me?" he said, leaning out to her.
She raised her dark eyes.
"It is not that. I do not trust myself."
After that nothing could have kept him away, and she knew it.
"Man demands both danger and play; therefore he selects woman as the most
dangerous of toys." A spice of danger had entered into their relationship.
It had become infinitely piquant.
He motored out to the farm the next day, to be told that Miss Harrison had
gone for a long walk and had not said when she would be back. That pleased
him. Evidently she was frightened. Every man likes to think that he is a
bit of a devil. Dr. Max settled his tie, and, leaving his car outside the
whitewashed fence, departed blithely on foot in the direction Carlotta had
taken.
She knew her man, of course. He found her, face down, under a tree,
looking pale and worn and bearing all the evidence of a severe mental
struggle. She rose in confusion when she heard his step, and retreated a
foot or two, with her hands out before her.
"How dare you?" she cried. "How dare you follow me! I--I have got to have
a little time alone. I have got to think things out."
He knew it was play-acting, but rather liked it; and, because he was quite
as skillful as she was, he struck a match on the trunk of the tree and
lighted a cigarette before he answered.
"I was afraid of this," he said, playing up. "You take it entirely too
hard. I am not really a villain, Carlotta."
It was the first time he had used her name.
"Sit down and let us talk things over."
She sat down at a safe distance, and looked across the little clearing to
him with the somber eyes that were her great asset.