"Tell
me--tell me all about it."
"I don't know what love is!" Tavernake declared fiercely. "I
don't know what it means to be in love!"
Again she laughed in his face.
"Are you so sure?" she whispered.
She saw the veins stand out upon his temples, watched the passion
which kept him at first tongue-tied.
"Sure!" he muttered. "Who can be sure when you look like that!"
He held out his arms. With a swift little backward movement she
flitted away and leaned against the table.
"What a brother-in-law you would make!" she laughed. "So steady,
so respectable, alas! so serious! Dear Mr. Tavernake, I wish
you joy. As a matter of fact, you and Beatrice are very well
suited for one another."
The telephone bell rang. She moved over and held the receiver to
her ear. Her face changed. After the first few words to which
she listened, it grew dark with anger.
"You mean to say that Professor Franklin has not been in since
lunch-time?" she exclaimed. "I left word particularly that I
should require him to-night. Is Major Post there, then? No?
Mr. Crease--no? Nor Mr. Faulkes? Not one of them! Very well,
ring me up directly the professor comes in, or any of them."
She replaced the receiver with a gesture of annoyance. Tavernake
was astonished at the alteration in her expression. The smile
had gone, and with its passing away lines had come under her eyes
and about her mouth. Without a word to him she strode away into
her bedroom.
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