Mind, I didn't mean to do you any
wrong, but if you have thought of me in a different way, I'm sorry.
Tell me what you want me to be to you, and in future I'll be it."
Hope and eagerness sprang up in her eyes then.
"I say," she began,
"Yes."
"You promise?"
"I promise."
The dull blood rose in her tired face.
"I want just a--just a friend," she said, as if almost ashamed.
Julian smiled.
"Not a lover," he said, with a fleeting air of gallantry. She shrank
visibly from the word, and hurriedly went on:
"Not I. I've had too much of love." The last word was spoken with a
violence of contempt. "I want a man as likes me, just really likes me,
as he might another man. See?"
"And you'll not love him?"
His eyes searched hers with a gaiety of inquiry that was almost laughter.
Cuckoo looked away.
"I'll not love him either," she said steadily. "I'll just like him too."
Seeing her earnestness and obvious emotion, Julian dropped his gently
quizzing manner, and became earnest, too, in his degree.
"Then it's a bargain," he said. "You and I are to like each other
thoroughly, never anything more, never anything less. Like two men, eh?"
She began at last to look relieved and happier.
"Yes, like that," she said.
Pages:
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324