read newspapers ... they're so dull. This tea is nice. And it's much
nicer in town now than it can possibly be in Ireland. Besides, I don't
want you to go!"

He let her chatter on, hoping that she would exhaust her interest in his
visit to Ireland and begin to talk of something else, but he did not
know that Cecily had greater tenacity than might appear from the
incoherence of her conversation. She held on to a subject until it was
settled irrevocably. She looked very charming as she sat opposite to
him, and he wondered how Jimphy could be so careless of her loveliness.
The sunlight shining through the window above her head kindled her hair
so that the ripples of it shone like gold, and the delicate sunburnt
flush of her cheeks deepened in the soft glow. He put out his hand and
touched her fingers. "Beautiful Cecily!" he said, and she smiled because
she liked to be told how beautiful she was.

"But you're going to Ireland," she said.

He did not answer.

"You say you'd do anything for me," she proceeded, "but when I ask you
not to go to Ireland, you refuse. If you really love me!..."

"I do love you, Cecily!"

"Well, why don't you stay in town! It's so queer to go away the moment
you get to know me!" She began to laugh.

"What's the joke?" he asked.

"Oh, I've just remembered how little we know of each other. You kissed
me the first time you came to my house!"

"I loved you the moment I saw you ... that day in the Park when I was
with Gilbert ... I loved you then. I didn't know who you were, but I
loved you. I couldn't help it, Cecily. You were looking at Gilbert and
then your eyes shifted and you looked at me, and I loved you, dear. I
worried Gilbert to tell me about you!..."

"What did he say?" she interrupted eagerly, leaning her elbows on the
table and resting her chin in the cup of her hands.

"He told me who you were," Henry answered awkwardly.

"But didn't he say anything else?... didn't he?..."

"I've forgotten what he said.... Then I saw you at the St. James's ...
he told me you often went to first-nights, and I went specially, hoping
to see you!..."

"Dear Paddy," she said, "and you were so shy!"

"And so jealous and angry because you talked all the time to Gilbert,
and ignored me. You made me go out of the box with Jimphy, and as I
went, I saw you putting your hand out to touch Gilbert, and I heard you
calling him, 'Gilbert, darling.' ..."

She laughed, but did not speak.

"And I was f