Page:Neith Boyce--The bond.djvu/199

Rh "Yes, you do try. You want the same freedom"

"I thought we agreed the ideal was equal freedom."

"So it would be if women were capable of it, if they were like men, capable of dissociating ideas that don't really belong together. But they're not. They emotionalise everything."

"Even an automobile drive and a sedate luncheon? Really, you're silly, Basil."

"Perhaps I am," he admitted darkly. "But I can't help it."

"I don't think, really, that it's a tremendous compliment to me—your jealousy," said Teresa coldly.

"No, it isn't. But it isn't the other thing either. You're so much alive, Teresa! And you're beautiful, and you love admiration. And really I feel that you might sometime care too much for someone else."

"It's no use arguing with a feeling," said Teresa. "I won't go out again with Fairfax."

Basil took her in his arms, in a wave of repentant emotion.

"No, I don't mean that. You shall do just as you want to do. I won't deprive you of any pleasure, if I can help it. I believe you do care a little for me!"

Teresa smiled tenderly, but with a shade of melancholy. She did not like the interruption