Page:No More Parades (Albert & Charles Boni).djvu/159

 wanted him to be conciliatory. She said she wanted to have a man on show as escort. Well then, an escort got something At just this moment he was beginning again with:

"Look here will you let me come to your room to-night or will you not?"

She burst into high, loud laughter. He said:

"Damn it all, it isn't any laughing matter Look here! You don't know what I risk There are A.P.M.'s and P.M.'s and deputy sub-acting A.P.M.'s walking about the corridors of all the hotels in this town, all night long It's as much as my job is worth

She put her handkerchief to her lips to hide a smile that she knew would be too cruel for him not to notice. And even when she took it away, he said:

"Hang it all, what a cruel-looking fiend you are Why the devil do I hang around you? There's a picture that my mother's got, by Burne-Jones  A cruel-looking woman with a distant smile  Some vampire  La belle Dame sans Merci  That's what you're like."

She looked at him suddenly with considerable seriousness

"See here, Potty she began. He groaned:

"I believe you'd like me to be sent to the beastly trenches Yet a big, distinguished-looking chap like me wouldn't have a chance At the first volley the Germans fired, they'd pick me off

"Oh, Potty," she exclaimed, "try to be serious for a minute I tell you I'm a woman who's trying who's desperately wanting  to be reconciled to her husband I would not tell that to another soul I would not tell it to myself But one