aid:

"Please take care; I'm still brittle!" Then she sat down again and
asked:

"Will you have some tea?"

"Tea! I have you back, and you ask me if I will have tea Gyp! Do you
know what I have felt like all this time? No; you don't know. You know
nothing of me--do you?"

A smile of sheer irony formed on her lips--without her knowing it was
there. She said:

"Have you had a good time at Count Rosek's?" And, without her will,
against her will, the words slipped out: "I'm afraid you've missed the
music-room!"

His stare wavered; he began to walk up and down.

"Missed! Missed everything! I have been very miserable, Gyp. You've no
idea how miserable. Yes, miserable, miserable, miserable!" With each
repetition of that word, his voice grew gayer. And kneeling down in
front of her, he stretched his long arms round her till they met behind
her waist: "Ah, my Gyp! I shall be a different being, now."

And Gyp went on smiling. Between that, and stabbing these false raptures
to the heart, there seemed to be nothing she could do. The moment his
hands relaxed, she got up and said:

"You know there's a baby in the house?"

He laughed.

"Ah, the baby! I'd forgotten. Let's go up and see it."

Gyp answered:

"You go."

She could feel him thinking: 'Perhaps it will make her nice to me!' He
turned suddenly and went.

She stood with her eyes shut, seeing the divan in the music-room and the
girl's arm shivering. Then, going to the piano, she began with all her
might to play a Chopin polonaise.

That evening they dined out, and went to "The Tales of Hoffmann." By
such devices it was possible to put off a little longer what she was
going to do. During the drive home in the dark cab, she shrank away
into her corner, pretending that his arm would hurt her dress; her
exasperated nerves were already overstrung. Twice she was on the
very point of crying out: "I am not Daphne Wing!" But each time pride
strangled the words in her throat. And yet they would have to come. What
other reason could she find to keep him from her room?

But when in her mirror she saw him standing behind her--he had crept
into the bedroom like a cat--fierceness came into her. She could see the
blood rush up in her own white face, and, turning round she said:

"No, Gustav, go out to the music-room if you want a companion."

He recoiled against the foot of the bed and stared at her haggardly, and
Gyp, turning back to her mirror, went on quietly taking