Page:Love and Mr. Lewisham – Wells (1899).djvu/64

52 "It isn't that. Besides—no."

She stood looking at him. "I promised to be home by four," she said. "Mrs. Frobisher has tea. "

"We may never have a chance to see one another again."

"Well?"

Lewisham suddenly turned very white.

"Don't leave me," he said, breaking a tense silence and with a sudden stress in his voice. "Don't leave me. Stop with me yet—for a little while. You  You can lose your way."

"You seem to think," she said forcing a laugh, "that I live without eating and drinking."

"I have wanted to talk to you so much. The first time I saw you. At first I dared not  I did not know you would let me talk.  And now, just as I am—happy, you are going."

He stopped abruptly. Her eyes were downcast. "No," she said, tracing a curve with the point of her shoe. "No. I am not going."

Lewisham restrained an impulse to shout. "You will come to Immering?" he cried, and as they went along the narrow path through the wet grass, he began to tell her with simple frankness how he cared for her company. "I would not change this," he said, casting about for an offer to reject, "for—anything in the world. I shall not be back for