"No, no." He held her arm fiercely. "You must come to tea. That's part
of the programme. We have plenty of time before seven o'clock." She
knew that she ought to return. Something seemed to tell her, as she
stood there, that now was the moment to break this off. But when his
hand was on her arm, when he was so close to her, she could not leave
him. She would have one hour more ... He took her across the street,
down into darkness, up into light. Then they went into a shop, up some
stairs, and were suddenly in a little room with a table with a cloth, a
window looking out into the lamp-lit square, cherry-coloured curtains
and gay hunting pictures on the walls. Martin pushed a bell in the wall
and a stout waiter, perspiring, smiling, a napkin in his hand, came to
the door. "Tea," said Martin, and he vanished. "It's all right," he
said, drawing her to a creaking wicker armchair near the empty
fireplace. "No one will interrupt us. They know me here. I ordered the
room yesterday." Tea came, but she could not eat anything. In some
strange way that moment in the theatre when he had pressed her hand had
altered everything. She recognised in herself a new Maggie; she was
excited with a thick burning excitement, she was almost sleepy with the
strain of it and her cheeks were hot, but her throat icy cold. When she
told him that she wasn't hungry, he said, "I'm not either." Then he
added, not looking at her, "That fellow won't be back for an hour." He
came and stood by her looking down on her. He bent forward over the
chair and put his hands under her chin and pressed her face up towards
his. But he did not kiss her. Then he took her hands and pulled her
gently out of the chair, sat down on it himself, then, still very
tenderly, put his arms round her and drew her down to him. She lay back
against him, her cheek against his, his arms tight around her. He
whispered to her again and again, "Darling ... Darling ... Darling."
She felt now so terribly part of him that she seemed to have lost all
her own identity. His hands, softly, tenderly passed up and down her
body, stroking her hair, her cheeks, her arms. Her mouth was against
his cheek and she was utterly motionless, shivering a little sometimes
and once her hand moved up and caught his and then moved away again. At
last, as it seemed from an infinite distance, his voice came to her,
speaking to her. "Maggie, darling," he said, "don't go back till late
to-night. You can say that those people asked you to stay to dinner.
Your aunts can't do anything. Nothing can happen. Stay with me here and
then later we'll go and have dinner at a little place I know ... and
then come back here ... come back here ... like this. Maggie, darling,
say you will. You must. We mayn't have another chance for so long.
You're coming to me afterwards. What does it matter, a week or two
earlier? What does it matter, Maggie? Stay here. Let us love one
another and have something to think about ... to remember ... to
remember ...
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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