Page:The Other House (London, William Heinemann, 1896), Volume 1.djvu/104

90 natural could keep down: "Let me remind you Dennis, that your coming was not at my request. You've come—yes; but you've come because you would. You've come in spite of me."

He gasped, and with the mere touch of her tone his own eyes filled. "You haven't wanted me?"

"I'm delighted to see you."

"Then in God's name what do you mean? Where are we, and what are you springing on me?"

"I'm only asking you again, as I've asked you already, to be patient with me—to let me, at such a critical hour, turn round. I'm only asking you to bear with me—I'm only asking you to wait."

"To wait for what?" He snatched the words out of her mouth. "It's because I have waited that I'm here. What I want of you is three simple words—that you can utter in three simple seconds." He looked about him, in his helpless dismay, as if to call the absent to witness. "And you look at me like a stone. You open up an abyss. You give me nothing, nothing." He paused, as it were, for a contradiction, but she made none; she had lowered her eyes and, supported against a table, stood there