Page:'Twixt land and sea - tales (IA twixtlandseatale00conr).pdf/98

 “I have got your shoe here.” She made no sound and I continued: “You had better give me your foot and I will put it on for you.”

She made no movement. I bent low down and groped for her foot under the flounces of the wrapper. She did not withdraw it and I put on the shoe, buttoning the instep-strap. It was an inanimate foot. I lowered it gently to the floor.

“If you buttoned the strap you would not be losing your shoe, Miss Don’t Care,” I said, trying to be playful without conviction. I felt more like wailing over the lost illusion of vague desire, over the sudden conviction that I would never find again near her the strange, half-evil, half-tender sensation which had given its acrid flavour to so many days, which had made her appear tragic and promising, pitiful and provoking. That was all over.

“Your father picked it up,” I said, thinking she may just as well be told of the fact.

“I am not afraid of papaby himself,” she declared scornfully.

“Oh! It’s only in conjunction with his disreputable associates, strangers, the ‘riff-raff of Europe’ as your charming aunt or great-aunt saysmen like me, for instancethat you:

“I am not afraid of you,” she snapped out.

“That's because you don’t know that I am now doing business with your father. Yes, I am in fact doing exactly what he wants me to do. I’ve broken my promise to you. That's the sort of man I am. And nowaren’t you afraid? If you believe what that dear, kind, truthful old lady says you ought to be.”