Page:The Other House (London, William Heinemann, 1896), Volume 1.djvu/195

Rh him with deeper earnestness. He stopped behind one of the chairs, holding its high back and now meeting her eyes. "If you do care for me," she went on with her warm voice, "there's a magnificent way you can show it. You can show it by putting into your appeal to Miss Martle something that she can't resist."

"And what may she not be able to resist?" Paul inquired, keeping his voice steady, but shaking his chair a little.

"Why, you—if you'll only be a bit personal, a bit passionate, have some appearance of really desiring her, some that your happiness really depends on her." Paul looked as if he were taking a lesson, and she gave it with growing assurance. "Show her some tenderness, some eloquence, try some touch of the sort that goes home. Speak to her, for God's sake, the words that women like. We all like them, and we all feel them, and you can do nothing good without them. Keep well in sight that what you must absolutely do is please her."

Paul seemed to fix his little eyes on this remote aim. " Please her and please you."

"It sounds odd, yes, lumping us together. But