Page:Idalia, by 'Ouida'.djvu/235

Rh smile; but the languor with which she turned aside homage, and let words of softer meaning glide off her ear unnoted br unaceepted, gave her an impenetrability, a nonchalance, a serenity, that were as impassable as coldness. "I may return to-morrow?" he asked her, when she at last had made him turn the caïque back, and had tacitly dismissed him.

He spoke briefly, but his voice was very low, and there was entreaty in the tone that pleaded far more than a honeyed phrase would ever have done with her. Her eyes dwelt on him a moment, once more with that profound and undefinable look of pity.

"Yes, since you wish. I shall be happy to see you at dinner, if you will do me the honour. Adieu!" She bowed, and moved to leave him. Something in his look as he answered her made her pause as she swept away, and stirred by a sudden impulse (impulse was rare with her), she waited an instant and held out her hand.

He took it; and bending his head, touched it with his lips as reverently as a devotee would kiss his cross. She laughed a little as she drew it gently away.