She looked away from the Cluny and down at Eugenia as she finished, and
had once more a shock of astonishment. The other's eyes were flaming.
"Theah, that's it," she said fiercely, showing her white teeth as she
spoke, but not in a smile. "That's it. That's _just_ it! _Wheah did you
learn that?_"
She dashed the question in Marise's face as though it had been her fist.
Marise positively drew back from her. Too startled to be anything but
literal, she answered, "Why, why, I don't know where I did. Oh, yes, in
my French history class, I suppose. They make you learn everything so
hard, you know. You yourself were saying what a grind it is."
Eugenia breathed hard and said, "History again, darn it! But I didn't
dream you'd learn _that_ sort of thing in it." She added defiantly, and
for Marise quite cryptically, "Well, _I'm_ going to learn it without!"
Mme. de la Cueva came back with the music in her hand. "Voila, mon
enfant," she said, shaking Marise's hand heartily. She reached for
Eugenia's hand too, which was hanging at her side, till Eugenia, seeing
the meaning of the other's gesture, brought it up with an awkward haste,
a painful red burning in her cheeks.
Some one came in as they went out, another student evidently, for he had
a roll of music in his hand. He stopped and stood aside with a deep bow
to let the two girls pass.
"Good-day, Mlle. Allen," he said, looking at her intently.
"Good-day, M. Boudoin," she answered. Neither girl spoke as they went
down the endless, winding stairs and passed out to the street.
As they turned into the Boulevard, and jogged past the Jardin de Cluny,
Eugenia asked tensely, "What are those queer-looking broken-down walls?"
Marise answered circumspectly, fearing another out-burst, "I think
they're Roman ruins ... what's left of the baths the Romans had here."
Eugenia made no answer, but looked at them hard.
Marise went on, "Awfully interesting, isn't it, to see Roman ruins right
in Paris, across the street from a cafe. But I suppose they'd look like
small potatoes to anybody who's seen Rome. Mme. Vallery says they look
comically small, after Rome."
Eugenia put her arm around her neck, and kissed her once more,
fervently, disturbingly, on the lips, "Would you like to go to Rome?
I'll _take_ you to Rome. I'll hire a private car for the two of us."
And before Marise could answer, before she could even bring out the
laugh which rose to her lips, Eugenia said with another of her abrupt
leaps, "That young man is in love with you. The one who came in
afterwards. He's awfully good-looking, too." She looked into Marise's
face with her avid, penetrating gaze, and said, "But you don't like
him!"
"I never thought about him in my life," cried Marise, exasperated. She
was beginning to feel desperately tired of the mental gymnastics of such
talk.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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