Page:'Twixt land and sea - tales (IA twixtlandseatale00conr).pdf/82

 in that voice slightly harsh yet mellow and always irritated:

“Why do you keep on coming here?”

“Why do I keep on coming here?” I repeated, taken by surprise. I could not have told her. I could not even tell myself with sincerity why I was coming there, “What's the good of you asking a question like that?”

“Nothing is any good,” she observed scornfully to the empty air, her chin propped on her hand, that hand never extended to any man, that no one had ever graspedfor I had only grasped her shoulder oncethat generous, fine, somewhat masculine hand. I knew well the peculiarly efficient shapebroad at the base, tapering at the fingersof that hand, for which there was nothing in the world to lay hold of. I pretended to be playful.

“No! But do you really care to know?”

She shrugged indolently her magnificent shoulders, from which the dingy thin wrapper was slipping a little.

“Ohnever mindnever mind!”

There was something smouldering under those airs of lassitude. She exasperated me by the provocation of her nonchalance, by something elusive and defiant in her very farm which I wanted to seize. I said roughly:

“Why? Don’t you think I should tell you the truth?”

Her eyes glided my way for a sidelong look, and she murmured, moving only her full, pouting lips: