“That--is rude.” He kept his eyes meditatively fixed upon her.
“Have you made a discovery in my face?” asked the girl presently, slightly moving from his gaze.
“No,” he replied calmly. “My discovery was made some time ago; I am merely going over beautiful and pleasant ground.”
“Really?” she returned, flushing, “then please look away; you annoy me.”
“Why should I, since you know it is done in admiration? You are a woman; do not pretend distaste for it.”
“I shall certainly go upstairs if you persist in talking so disagreeably.”
“Indulge me a little; I feel like talking, and I promise not to be disagreeable. Always wear white; it becomes you. Never forget that beauty needs appropriate surroundings. Another thing, ma belle cousine, this little trick you have of blushing on the slightest provocation spoils your whole appearance. Your complexion should always retain its healthy whiteness, while--”
“You have been indulged quite sufficiently, Louis. Do you know, if you often spoke to me in this manner I should soon hate you?”
“That would indeed be unfortunate. Never hate, Ruth; besides making enemies, hate is an arch enemy to the face, distorting the softest and loveliest.”
“We cannot love people who calmly sit and irritate us like mocking tarantulas.”
“That is exaggerated, I think. Besides, Heaven forbid our loving everybody! Never love, Ruth; let liking be strong enough for you. Love only wears out the body and narrows the mind, all to no purpose. Cupid, you know, died young, or wasted to plainness, for he never had his portrait taken after he matured.”
“A character such as you would have would be unbearable.”
“Happily our hearts need no teaching; they love and hate instinctively before the brain can speak.”
“Good--for some. But in me behold the anomaly whose brain always reconnoitres the field beforehand, and has never yet considered it worth while to signal either ‘love’ or ‘hate.’”
He rose with a smile and sauntered over to the piano. The unbecoming blush mounted slowly to Ruth’s face and her eyes were bright as she watched him. When his hands touched the keys, she spoke.
“No doubt you think it adds to your intellect to pretend independence of all emotion. But, do you know, I think feeling, instead of being a weakness, is often more clever than wisdom? At any rate, what you are doing now is proof sufficient that you feel, and perhaps more strongly than many.”