Jennie raised her head, but the sight of his perplexed countenance was
too much for her, and it was some time before her merriment allowed her
to speak. At last she said:
'Wouldn't you like to take me by the shoulders and put me out of the
room, Mr. Wentworth?'
'I'd like to take you by the shoulders and shake you.'
'Ah! that would be taking a liberty, and could not be permitted. We must
leave punishment to the law, you know, although I do think a man should
be allowed to turn an objectionable visitor into the street.'
'Miss Brewster,' cried the young man earnestly, leaning over the table
towards her, 'why don't you abandon your horrible inquisitorial
profession, and put your undoubted talents to some other use?'
'What, for instance?'
'Oh, anything.'
Jennie rested her fair cheek against her open palm again, and looked at
the dingy window. There was a long silence between them--Wentworth
absorbed in watching her clear-cut profile and her white throat, his
breath quickening as he feasted his eyes on her beauty.
'I have always got angry,' she said at last, in a low voice with the quiver
of a suppressed sigh in it, 'when other people have said that to me--I wonder
why it is I merely feel hurt and sad when you say it? It is so easy to
say, "Oh, anything"--so easy, so easy. You are a man, with the strength
and determination of a man, yet you have met with disappointments and
obstacles that have required all your courage to overcome.
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