Page:The King in Yellow (1895).djvu/259

Rh The change in the girl’s face shocked him.

“I beg your pardon,” he cried, “I have hurt you.”

And as quick as a flash she understood him because she was a woman.

“My parents are dead,” she said.

Presently he began again, very gently.

“Would it displease you if I beg you to receive me? Is it the custom?”

“I cannot,” she answered. Then glancing up at him, “I am sorry; I should like to; but believe me, I cannot.”

He bowed seriously and looked vaguely uneasy.

“It isn’t because I don’t wish to. I—I like you; you are very kind to me.”

“Kind?” he cried, surprised and puzzled.

“I like you,” she said slowly, “and we will see each other sometimes if you will.”

“At friends’ houses?”

“No, not at friends’ houses.”

“Where?”

“Here,” she said with defiant eyes.

“Why,” he cried, ‘in Paris you are much more liberal in your views than we are.”

She looked at him curiously.

“Yes, we are very Bohemian.”

“I think it is charming,” he declared.

“You see, we shall be in the best of society,” she ventured timidly, with a pretty gesture toward the statues of the dead queens, ranged in stately ranks above the terrace.

He looked at her, delighted, and she brightened at the success of her innocent little pleasantry.

“Indeed,” she smiled, “I shall be well chaperoned, because you see we are under the protection of the gods themselves; look,