"
"Perhaps I am," she remarked, indifferently.
"Do you wish to withdraw from your promise?" he asked.
"I really haven't thought much about it," she replied,
carelessly. "By-the-bye, have you seen Beatrice lately?"
"We agreed, I think," he reminded her, "that we would not talk
about your sister."
She looked at him over her shoulder.
"I do not remember that I agreed to anything of the sort," she
declared. "I think it was you who laid down the law about that.
As a matter of fact, I think that your silence about her is very
unkind. I suppose you have seen her?"
"Yes, I have seen her," Tavernake admitted.
"She continues to be tragic," Elizabeth asked, "whenever my name
is mentioned?"
"I should not call it tragic," Tavernake answered, reluctantly.
"One gathers, however, that something transpired between you
before she left, of a serious nature."
She looked at him earnestly.
"Really," she said, "you are a strange, stolid young man. I
wonder," she went on, smiling into his face, "are you in love
with my sister?"
Tavernake made no immediate response, only something flashed for
a moment in his eyes which puzzled her.
"Why do you look at me like that?" she demanded. "You are not
angry with me for asking?"
"No, I am not angry," he replied. "It isn't that. But you must
know--you must see!"
Then she indeed did see that he was laboring under a very great
emotion. She leaned towards him, laughing softly.
"Now you are really becoming interesting," she murmured.
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