Page:The Plutocrat (1927).pdf/271

 I shall—I shall regret to be so far away from you day after to-morrow. Day after to-morrow is not long; it always comes so quickly."

"If you will regret it, why do you go?"

"Because I can't stay here. It is not pleasant to be where I might see people who" Threatened by a sudden tendency to sob, she stopped speaking and covered her face with her hands. "I can't—I can't stay here," she murmured brokenly.

Upon that he was at last dazzled by an idea. "Then why won't you go with me?"

"What?" she murmured. "Go with you? Where?"

"Wherever you want to. To those places you said I ought to see. We could take a motor"

"No, no! I couldn't." She dropped her hands from her face, and turned to him, smiling sadly. "I am not very conventional; but neither am I eccentric, and I fear such an expedition might have an air of some eccentricity."

"Aurélie!" he cried. "You're merely mocking me. What would be either eccentric or unconventional about a motor trip with your son and me? Be serious."

She frowned, smiled vaguely at him, then rose and