"Perhaps you wished to believe it," said the musician.
When he found the silence that followed no longer endurable, he moved a little nearer to her, where he could see the fierce movement of her shoulders and the curls on the back of her neck.
"Shall we resume our conversation?" he said, and touched the Baedeker.
"How can we? I must wait a little, see Jack, no, no, not see him, but--but write to him--if it is possible he never had my other letter? Why has he come back to torment me just when I was beginning to feel happy? And--oh, drop that book, can't you? Don't you understand that I cannot go abroad now?"
"Because, oh, how dense you are! Even if I can get away from Jack, and I feel as if I never should be free again, but even supposing I can break his heart and leave him, how can I go away and be by myself interminably? You don't know me if you think that would do me any good."
"I don't think so. I did not suggest your going alone. You don't know _me_ if--you think I could let you go."
She raised herself slowly on to her elbows and covered her eyes with her hands. He was looking down at the scarlet cover of the Baedeker.
"What I have said. You don't want to see Jack. I will take you away from him. Will you come?"
She did not speak, and a shiver passed swiftly down her frame.
"I believe you like him still," he said, with a curious smile.
She raised her head, and clenched her fists, and laughed harshly. She, too, looked at the scarlet cover of the Baedeker.
"I should hate him--if he were worth it. But I have never loved him."
"Then answer my question. Will you come?"
She moistened her lips and tried to speak clearly.
"We were so happy as it was. Can't it go on?"
"No, it cannot go on. If you were a man you would not ask that. Will you come?"
She closed her eyes, and tried not to hear the singing in her ears, and thought he would come and touch her. But he did not move at all.
"You are frightened, are you not?" he said.
"Of you? No, I don't think I am frightened of you."
He came so near then that she felt his warm breath on her neck.
"Not of me, oh, no. But, all the same, you are frightened, or else you would not hesitate."
He turned away again, and she dropped her hands quickly from her eyes.