Page:A M Williamson - The Motor Maid.djvu/97

Rh nothing to conceal, and we 're bound to be companions of the Road for weal or woe? But if he felt any temptation to be expansive he resisted it, like a true Englishman; and to break a silence which grew almost embarrassing I was driven to ask him, quite brazenly, if he had no curiosity to know my name.

"Not exactly curiosity," said he, smiling his pleasant smile again. "I 'm never curious about people I—like, or feel that I 'm going to like. It is n't my nature."

"It 's just the opposite with me."

"We 're of opposite sexes."

"You believe that explains it? I don't know. Man may be a fellow creature, I suppose—though they did n't teach me that at the Convent. But tell me this: even if you have no curiosity, because you hope you can manage to endure me, do you think I look like an 'Elise'?"

"Somehow, you don't. Names have different colours for me. Elise is bright pink. You ought to be silver, or pale blue."

"Elise is my professional name; Lady Turnour is my sponsor. My real name 's Lys—Lys d'Angely."

"Good! Lys is silver."

"I wish I could coin it. Let me see if I can guess what you ought to be? You look like—like—well, Jack would suit you. But that 's too good to be true. I shall never meet a 'Jack' except in books and ballads."

"My name is John Claud. But when I was a boy, I always fought any chap who called me 'Claud,' and tried to give him a black eye or a bloody nose. You may call me Jack, if you like."