Page:Willa Cather - The Song of the Lark.djvu/375

 No, she did not remember. That momentary elevation had no associations for her. It was unconscious.

He looked her up and down and laughed and shook his head. "You are just all I want you to be—and that is,—not for me! Don't worry, you 'll get at it. You are at it. My God! have you ever, for one moment, been at anything else?"

Thea did not answer him, and clearly she had not heard him. She was watching something out in the thin light of the false spring and its treacherously soft air.

Fred waited a moment. "Are you going to dine with your friend to-night?"

"Yes. He has never been in New York before. He wants to go about. Where shall I tell him to go?"

"Would n't it be a better plan, since you wish me to meet him, for you both to dine with me? It would seem only natural and friendly. You 'll have to live up a little to his notion of us." Thea seemed to consider the suggestion favorably. "If you wish him to be easy in his mind," Fred went on, "that would help. I think, myself, that we are rather nice together. Put on one of the new dresses you got down there, and let him see how lovely you can be. You owe him some pleasure, after all the trouble he has taken."

Thea laughed, and seemed to find the idea exciting and pleasant. "Oh, very well! I 'll do my best. Only don't wear a dress coat, please. He has n't one, and he 's nervous about it."

Fred looked at his watch. "Your monument up there is fast. I 'll be here with a cab at eight. I 'm anxious to meet him. You 've given me the strangest idea of his callow innocence and aged indifference."

She shook her head. "No, he 's none of that. He 's very good, and he won't admit things. I love him for it. Now, as I look back on it, I see that I 've always, even when I was little, shielded him."