436 ANGEL PAVEMENT

she was compelled to recognise the truth behind this
little jeer. When he talked about her in his casual,
rather brutal fashion, he had a strange knack of fasten-
ing upon some unpleasant truth. He seemed to take aim
quite wildly, but somewhere in her mind, a bell rang
nearly every time.

He changed his tone now. "Oh, come on. Nobody's
going to hurt you. Let's enjoy ourselves while we're
here."

"No, thank you," she said quietly, though she found
it far more difficult to resist this kind of appeal.

He pressed her,

"No, I won't Some time, perhaps. But not now. No,
I mean it."

"Well, I'm disappointed in you. Still, 111 try again.
Otherwise, y'know, you might regret saying that, some
day. Oh, you can laugh—"

"I might well laugh. I think men are the limit. You
just want your own way, no matter what it costs—to me,
and you're quite hurt and disappointed because you
can't have it, and anybody would think to hear you that
you'd been spending weeks thinking it all out purely for
my benefit."

'That's right," said Mr. Golspie cheerfully, and she
knew, though she could not see him properly, that he
was grinning. "Just what I have been doing. That's
why I'm disappointed."

"And that's why I'm laughing," she retorted, though
she did not feel like laughing now. "At your impudent
selfishness. Marvellous!"

"And I tell you, young woman, you might regret it one
day. I'm going to ask you again. You think it over/'

"I won't"