"About saving your life."
"And ruining my reputation?"
"Well, life comes first. I said you would have to marry me to pay for
it. Will you?"
Cassy lowered the napkin. He was talking in jest she knew, or thought
she knew, but the subject was not to her taste, though if he had been
serious she would have disliked it still more. She wanted to give it to
him, but no fitting insolence occurred to her and she turned to the
window before which two Japanese were passing, with the air, certainly
feigned, which these Asiatics display, of being hilarious and naif.
"Will you?" he repeated.
"Will I what?"
"Marry me?"
Perhaps he did mean it, she thought. He was cheeky enough for anything.
But now he was prodding her. "Say yes. Say to-morrow; say to-day."
She turned on him. "Why not yesterday? Or is it just another of your
pearls of thought? You are simply ridiculous."
Paliser put down his cigarette. "That is the proper note. Marriage is
ridiculous. But it is the most ancient of human institutions. Divorce
must have been invented at least three weeks later."
Cassy did not mean to laugh and did not want to, but she could not help
herself and she exploded it. "You are so ardent!"
Innocently Paliser caressed his chin. He had made her laugh and that was
a point gained. But such pleasure as he may have experienced he
succeeded in concealing.
"Again the proper note! I am ardent. Yet--shall I admit it?--formerly I
walked in darkness. It is all due to my father. I have forgotten the
prophet preaching on the hillside who denounced respectability as a low
passion. But my father, while deeply religious, has views more advanced.
He dotes on respectability. He tried to instil it into me and, alas! how
vainly! I was as the blind, the light was withheld and continued to be
until, well, until a miracle occurred. You appeared, I was healed, I saw
and I saw but you. What do you say?"
"That your conversation is singularly edifying." In speaking, Cassy
gathered her gloves with an air slightly hilarious but not in the least
naif. Before Paliser could cut in, she added: "If I don't hurry, Ma
Tamby will be out and I shall lose my lesson."
Paliser shifted. She is devilish pretty, he thought. But is she worth
it? For a second he considered the possible scandal which he had
considered before.