Page:Love's trilogy.djvu/68

 He said this quite simply, as if he wanted to strike a quiet note, but the sound of his voice was so gentle and honest, his eyes looked so warm and happy. For a moment a heavenly feeling came over me, a feeling of bliss, of triumph, of weakness.

I grew calm again, when, in the most matter-of-fact way, he said, 'I wish I could be allowed to kiss you.'

How hideous and stupid this was. Just like the other day when he started by saying that the cab was waiting.

I answered gravely and severely, 'Let us make a compact, Mr. Mörch. I am delighted to spend the evening with you—that unconventionality I have allowed myself. But you will have to behave in such a way that I shall not have to repent this evening too much. Remember what you promised.'

'Yes,' he said, 'that is just the reason why I asked to kiss you. Had we not made that compact the other day, I would have kissed you without permission. But I'll keep my word. I'll behave just as you wish me to, and now we won't talk any more about that.'

He said it politely and smilingly without a suspicion of annoyance or disappointment, and the rest of the evening he was the same polite, contented, and smiling being. Yet how changed he was.

That this indifferent bon-vivant who, at dinner and afterwards, affably entertained a young girl, lie, of course, considered a silly little goose, could be