The Pagan Madonna - Page 21/141

"Captain," she said as they sat down to tea, "I'm going to ask one more

favour."

"What is it?"

"A Chinaman is coming with some jade. If I'm alone with him I'm afraid

I'll buy something, and I really can't spend another penny in Shanghai."

"I see. Want me to shoo him off in case his persistence is too much for

you."

"Exactly. It's very nice of you."

"Greatest pleasure in the world. I wish the job was permanent--shooing 'em

away from you."

She sent him a quick sidelong glance, but he was smiling. Still, there was

something in the tone that quickened her pulse. All nonsense, of course;

both of them stony, as the Britishers put it; both of them returning to

the States for bread and butter.

"Why didn't you put up here?" she asked. "There is plenty of room."

"Well, I thought perhaps it would be better if I stayed at the Palace."

"Nonsense! Who cares?"

"I do." And this time he did not smile.

"I suppose my Chinaman will be waiting in the lobby."

"Let's toddle along, then."

Dennison followed her out of the tea room, his gaze focused on the back of

her neck, and it was just possible to resist the mad inclination to bend

and kiss the smooth, ivory-tinted skin. He was not ready to analyze the

impulse for fear he might find how deep down the propellant was. A woman,

young in the heart, young in the body, and old in the mind, disillusioned

but not embittered, unafraid, resourceful, sometimes beautiful and

sometimes plain, but always splendidly alive.

Perhaps the wisest move on his part was to avoid her companionship, invent

some excuse to return by the way of Manila, pretend he had transfer

orders. To spend twenty-one days on the same ship with her and to keep his

head seemed a bit too strong. Had there been something substantial

reaching down from the future--a dependable job--he would have gone with

her joyously. But he had not a dollar beyond his accumulated pay; that

would melt quickly enough when he reached the States. He was thirty; he

would have to hustle to get anywhere by the time he was forty. His only

hope was that back in the States they were calling for men who knew how to

manage men, and he had just been discharged--or recalled for that

purpose--from the best school for that. But they were calling for

specialists, too, and he was a jack of all trades and master of none.