"An old woman spoke to me in a restaurant," said Spike, "and again in
the Luxembourg Gardens. She said, 'Wish for happiness.' She had on
a black hat and she was a witch!" He looked slyly across the table.
"I thought maybe it was you being an old woman, or being your real
self...."
The girl's calm eyes met his.
"The black hat was mine. I let her wear it once. Yes, she is a witch.
She is an old witch. She is probably around here now." The girl looked
about, stretching her white neck to see over Spike's head. "There she
is, there at the farthest table."
Her arms folded on the table the old woman gazed at them. She seemed
lonely. When Spike turned his head toward her she got up from her chair
and hurried away, her voluminous skirts streaming out behind.
"She is ugly," Spike said. "Even, her loneliness is ugly." He hunched
his shoulders. "Why is she unhappy if she has Magic?"
The girl's conflicting thoughts hid in her dark eyes. She was glad that
Spike did not like this other woman (his dislike of any other woman, no
matter who, no matter how old, would have touched her as a tribute to
herself)--and she was, in the middle of this thought of victory, sorry
for the old woman.
"You ought to know," said the girl with a half smile. "You had Magic
for five days and a half!... The ring is hers."
"Well, here it is!" Spike exclaimed, taking the ring from his finger.
"It is not mine!"
"You gave it to me!"
"I need not take it back." She laughed aloud and slid down in her
chair, thrusting her feet out.
"The time is up," said Spike doggedly. "Now take back the ring!"
"But I shall not. It is not mine. It is for you to keep," she put her
hands behind her. In a reassuring voice she added, "You must know about
the ring. Let me tell you."
"I'll not keep it!"
"Nor will I!" She laughed again.
"Why do you laugh?"
"We had an argument about you. She said you would have desires fit to
tear open the starry heavens! She has been watching the moon, expecting
that something strange and magnificent might happen to it!..."
"And you argued I wouldn't have sense enough to wish for anything!"
"Oh, no!" she exclaimed. "I said you would be serious and try to think
it out."
"I concentrated on money!" Spike made a wry face. "But I was so greedy
I couldn't decide."
"Or not greedy enough...!"
This was a comforting thought. "The witch will laugh when she hears I
threw my chance away!"
"No, she won't laugh."
"I don't care what she does. I don't like her!"
"She knows that." The girl's deep voice was kind. She watched his face
and there was a dark, brooding light in her eyes. "You are cruel," she
told him, out of her security.
"No, I am not," contradicted Spike, surprised. For a minute he looked
at the trees, thinking.... "I watched for you every day," he went on.
"Were you in the Luxembourg Tuesday?"
She nodded.
"Then it was magic and you disappeared...."
She shook her head. "Oh, no!"
"Where did you go? Into the wine shop there?"
"Oh, no. You were so close behind."
"If it wasn't magic, what was it?"
She was embarrassed. "You see I popped into the place _pour femmes_
right there at the entrance!"
Spike laughed. "I am stupid! I should have waited had I known.... Why
did you run away--you must have known I was coming after you."
She shrugged. "You had much to think about."
"I was thinking about you, and then I saw you coming along the path!"
She looked at him quickly.
"I like you," Spike said, one hand in his orange hair. "Even in the
worst times when it seemed you must be just one phase of the terrible
old woman, even then I went on thinking about you.... I drew a picture
of my memory of you. It wasn't good, but I liked it."
"I have thought about you," she said quietly.
"I am glad you did not disappear magically."
"Are you? Well----" She let it go. There was something she
concealed--carelessly, as if she knew it must soon cease to be a secret.
The bald-headed waiter came silently and filled their glasses. Spike
drank slowly, then turned the goblet, thumb and forefinger on the
slender stem. The noon sun poured in a hot white flood beyond the
trees. The traffic torrent swept by in a ceaseless rain of sharp
sounds; farther away encircling them the city in full voice roared like
the sea.
"Why do you think you couldn't decide?" she asked, to hear his voice.
"There's the old woman again!" Spike pointed. "There at the edge of the
trees." When they both turned to look, the old witch hurried away.