She forced her eyes up to his again. "I'm--sorry--from your viewpoint, I mean--that things are going wrong."
He smiled gently. "You are very conservative, Lady Elza. You want very much to avoid hypocrisy, don't you?"
"Yes," she said frankly. "You could hardly expect me to be sorry at your defeat."
"Defeat?" He rasped out the word, and his laugh was harsh. "You are too optimistic. Defeat? Things going wrong? That is not so. A slight set-back. A strategic retreat--and in a week I will have regained more than I have lost.... Oh, Lady Elza! I who would now--and always--be so gentle with you--why we are almost quarreling! That is not right. For the lives of a thousand of my servants, I would not have used that tone to you just now. Forgive me....
"I was saying, my Elza--could not you feel more kindly to me now. A little hope from those gentle eyes of yours--a little word from those red lips--a word of hope for what some day might be for us--you and me--"
She dared to try and turn the subject. "You mentioned the Brende model--where is it? Have you it in the Cold Country?"
He frowned. "Yes. And I will use it--for you and me alone. You've always known that, haven't you? Just for you and me, my Elza." He took her hand. "Won't you try and love me--just a trifle?"
She did not move. "I--don't know." Then she faced him squarely. "I do not love you, Tarrano." Something in his eyes--a quality of pleading; a wistful smile upon his lips--suddenly struck her as pathetic. Strange and queerly pathetic that such a man as he should be reduced to wistfulness. Emotion swept her. Not love. A feeling of sympathy; a womanly desire to lighten his sorrow; to sympathize and yet to withhold from him the happiness he sought.
"I do not love you, Tarrano. But I do respect you. And I am sorry--"
"Respect! I have told you I can command that from everyone. But love--your love--"
"You mean--you're trying to love me--and cannot?"
"I mean--Oh, I don't know what I mean, save that I do not love you yet."
He smiled. "I think you speak the truth when you say you do not know what you mean. Your love! If I had it, I should know that I would have it always. But--having it not--" He was very sincere, but his smile broadened. "Having it not, my Elza, there is no power in all the heavens that can tell me how to get it. It may be born in a moment from now--or never. Who can tell?"