"Just once!"
"No!"
"Well, why not? You've let me hold your hand. What's the difference?"
"There's every difference. Besides I didn't let you hold my hand. You
took it. I couldn't prevent you. You're so rough!..."
"No, my dear, not rough. Not really rough. Eleanor, just once!..."
"No," she said again, this time speaking so loudly that she startled
herself. "Please go away. I shan't go out with you again. I was silly
to go out with you at all. You don't know how to behave!..."
She broke off abruptly and turned to open the door, but she had
difficulty with the key because of her anger.
"Let me open it for you," he said, taking the key from her hand and
inserting it in the lock. "There!" he added, when the door was open.
"Thank you," she said, taking the key from him. "Good-night!"
"Good-night, Eleanor!" he replied very softly.
They did not move. She stood with, her hand on the door and he stood on
the top step and gazed at her.
"Well--good-night," she said again.
"Dear Eleanor," he replied. "My dear Eleanor!"
She gulped a little. "Goo--good-night!" she said.
"I love you, my dear, so much. I shall never love anyone as I love you.
I have never loved anybody else but you, never, never!... Well, I
thought I loved someone else, but I didn't!..."
"It's no good," she began, but he interrupted her.
"Well, meet me again to-morrow night at the same place!..."
"No, I won't!"
"At five o'clock. I'll be there before you ... long before you. You'll
meet me, won't you?"
"No."
"Please, Eleanor!"
She hesitated. Then she said, "Oh, very well, then! But it'll be the
last time. Good-night!"
She pushed the door to, but before she could close it, he whispered
"Good-night, my darling!" to her, and then the door was between them.
He waited until he saw the flash of the light in her room, and hoped
that she would come to the window; but she did not do so, and after a
while he went away.
V
Up in her room, she was staring at her reflection in the mirror, while
he was waiting below on the pavement for her to come to the window, and
as he walked away, she began to talk to the angry, baffled girl she saw
before her.
"I won't marry him," she said. "I won't marry him. I don't love him. I
don't even like him. I _won't_ marry him!..."