Page:The little blue devil (IA littlebluedevil00mackiala).pdf/258
came her reluctance to agree to the plan, smiled, and said she would go. They started early next morning. It was a perfect day, and for the first few miles they drove in silence; the horses were very fresh and needed all Power’s attention. Then he began to talk, but Pamela was nervous and abstracted and hardly heard what he said. She thought of Tony in Philadelphia. How well they had got on, in spite of the difficult situation! Power’s remarks never interested her; he belonged to a different world and seemed almost to speak another language, but she supposed she ought to take her share in the purposeless conversation.
And then they talked of the weather”—
she smiled as the nonsense rhyme repeated itself over and over in her head, and Power asked her what the joke was.
“There isn’t any joke, really.”
“You just smiled because you were happy, eh?”
She did not answer that, and he continued.
“I am happier than I have been for weeks. I—I was so wretched when you were angry with me.”
She put her hand out in warning. It was insufferable that he should remind her of what she had consented to forget. But he was not to be stopped.
“Oh, yes, I know you were very good to forgive me, and I’m grateful, but you have never realised that I have been good too. Has it ever struck you that it was pretty hard for me to go on keeping out of your way, never seeing you alone, and only talking to you about things that don’t matter? I tell you I never did anything so difficult for any woman on the face of the globe, and I wouldn’t have done it for anyone but you—Pamela!”
His voice, which had been getting out of control, softened on the last word. Pamela, forcing herself to keep