Page:Delight - de la Roche - 1926.djvu/212

 pattern. Bright hats with ribbon bows, red and green balloons, bloomed like exotic flowers. Some boys had made a jack-o'-lantern from a prize pumpkin. Their sudden sallies into the crowd with it brought shrieks and scurrying from the girls. A man, with a fire blazing in an iron cauldron, made waffles before an admiring circle. He looked like a sorcerer with the ruddy light on his swarthy face and bare arms, dipping his irons in the pot of batter, then in the pot of sizzling fat, then rolling the smoking dainty in powdered sugar. Kirke bought half a dozen, and he and Delight strolled along, eating them from a paper bag.

"Would you sooner have had hot popcorn?" he asked.

"No. I like these. We can have the popcorn after a bit."

"True. Would you like to dance?"

"No." She shrank from the thought of mingling with the dancers. She had seen some of the boarders from The Duke on the floor.

"There's a fortune-telling booth. Like your fortune told?"

"Yes, I'd like that."

But when they got inside the door, she saw the gypsy from whom she had bought the green earrings, and fled, leaving Kirke to follow.

"Weel," he observed, "you seem to be in skittish mood tonight."

She did not answer but pushed out her under lip like a stubborn child. He stalked beside her, frowning and yet amused. She fascinated him, more and more. He did not half like it and yet took a certain grim pleasure in observing the effect she had on him, as a cool and somewhat cynical outsider might. The more he felt her power, the more arrogant he became with her.