"Do you mean to say that
he has been annoying you?"
"It was almost that."
"Ah!" he said. "Ah!" and he grasped his stick in a way that boded ill
for Monsieur Tellier.
Susie, glancing up at him, thought it very fine. He was such a volcano,
and there was such a fearful pleasure in stirring him up--in skipping
over the thin crust with a lively consciousness of the boiling lava
beneath!
"Then you didn't send him?" she inquired, sweetly.
"Send him! Miss Rushford, do you think for a moment that I would be so
rude, so impertinent? Tell me you do not think so!"
"I _didn't_ think so," said Sue, biting her lip, a little fearfully. "I
even defended you, as I have said. But now--"
"But now--"
His eyes seemed to burn her; she dared not look up and meet them. She
even regretted that she had begun to play with fire.
"But now," he repeated, insistently, imperatively.
"No, I don't think so now," she said, with a little catch of the breath.
Then she glanced up at him, and instantly looked away. He should not act
so; every one would notice; it was very embarrassing!
"That is kind of you," he said, in a low voice.
"Though," she added, reprovingly, glad to find a joint in his armour, "I
am surprised that you should discuss me in any way whatever with that
creature!"
"You are right!" he agreed, flushing hotly.
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