'Do--you--mean--to--tell--me'--Annette's voice trembled 'do you mean to tell me that you knocked that time simply to make me come up?'
'That was it. Rather a scheme, don't you think? And now, would you mind telling me how you found out that I had been buying your waltz? Those remarks of yours about fools' paradises were not inspired solely by the affairs of Sellers. But it beats me how you did it. I swore Rozinsky, or whatever his name is, to secrecy.'
'A Mr Morrison,' said Annette, indifferently, 'rang up on the telephone and asked me to tell you that he was greatly worried by the piles of music which were littering the rooms you lent him.'
The young man burst into a roar of laughter.
'Poor old Morrison! I forgot all about him. I lent him my rooms at the Albany. He's writing a novel, and he can't work if the slightest thing goes wrong. It just shows--'
'Perhaps you didn't intend to hurt me. I dare say you meant only to be kind. But--but--oh, can't you see how you have humiliated me? You have treated me like a child, giving me a make-believe success just to--just to keep me quiet, I suppose. You--'
'Quite a short one. It is from Epstein, the picture-dealer. This is what he says. "Sir," meaning me, not "Dear Bill," mind you--just "Sir." "I am glad to be able to inform you that I have this morning received an offer of ten guineas for your picture, 'Child and Cat'. Kindly let me know if I am to dispose of it at this price."'
'I have just been to Epstein's. It seems that the purchaser is a Miss Brown. She gave an address in Bayswater. I called at the address. No Miss Brown lives there, but one of your pupils does. I asked her if she was expecting a parcel for Miss Brown, and she said that she had had your letter and quite understood and would take it in when it arrived.'
Annette was hiding her face in her hands.
'Do you remember that story of the people on the island who eked out a precarious livelihood by taking in one another's washing?' he asked, casually.
'I've always thought,' he said, 'that it must have drawn them very close together--made them feel rather attached to each other. Don't you?'
'I don't want to go away. I want to stay and hear you say you'll marry me.'
She heard him moving towards the door. He stopped, then went on again. The door closed quietly. Presently from the room above came the sound of footsteps--footsteps pacing monotonously to and fro like those of an animal in a cage.