He shook his head.
"She's with some woman friend.
Thank God she has a friend at last—she spends a lot of time with her."
He smiled guilelessly and contented, and trotted on.
I brought Pat in.
"I think we won't make a light, eh?" I asked when we were in my room.
"Yes, darling.
For one moment, then you can put it out again."
"You are insatiable," said I, and the red plush splendours briefly showed up in the shrill light, and as swiftly were out again.
The windows were open and the night air wafted in from the trees opposite, fresh as if from a wood.
"Lovely," said Pat and curled up in the corner of the window seat.
"Do you really like it here?"
"Yes, Robby.
Like being in a big park in summer.
It's grand."
"I suppose you didn't happen to notice the room next door as you passed?"
I asked.
"No, why?"
"This fine big balcony here on the left belongs to it as well.
It is quite shut in, and nothing opposite.
Now if you lived there, you wouldn't even need a suit for your sun bathing."
"Yes, if I did live there—"
"You could," said I casually. "As you saw, the room will be free within a day or two."
She looked at me and smiled.
"Do you think that sort of thing would quite suit us?
To be always so near together?"
"But we wouldn't be together always," I replied. "I wouldn't be there in the daytime, for instance.
And often not at night.
On the other hand, if we could be together here, we wouldn't have to go and sit in restaurants, and always be parting so soon, as if we were merely on a visit."
She stirred a little in her corner.
"It almost sounds as if you had thought it all out already, darling."
"And so I have," said I. "The whole evening, in fact."
She sat up.
"Do you really mean it seriously, Robby?"
"Heavens, yes," said I. "Haven't you noticed that before?"
She was silent a moment.
"Tell me, Robby," said she then, and her voice was deeper than before, "how do you come to mention it just now?"
"I come to mention it," I replied, more vigorously than.
I meant, for I suddenly felt that the decision that was now coming was about much more than merely the room, "I come to mention it, because during these last weeks I have seen how wonderful it was to be completely together.
I can't bear it any longer, the hourly parting.
I want to have more of you.
I want you to be with me always; I have no desire any more for the sophisticated game of hide-and-seek with love, it is repulsive to me; I want just you and again you, I can never have enougli of you, and I don't want to forgo one single minute of you."
I heard her breathing.
She sat in the corner by the window, her hands about her knees, arid said nothing.
Slowly the red glow of the electric sign rose above the trees opposite and cast a warm reflection on her bright shoes. Then it wandered over her dress and her hands.
"You can laugh at me if you like," said I.
"Laugh, why?"
"Well, because I say all the time, / want.
After all you must want too."
She looked up.