But I ought to, of course--you're quite right." She looked at
Van Degen thoughtfully. "At any rate, he's not a married man."
Van Degen had got to his feet again and was standing accusingly before
her; but as she spoke the blood rose to his neck and ears. "What
difference does that make?"
"It might make a good deal. I see," she added, "how careful I ought to
be about going round with you."
"With ME?" His face fell at the retort; then he broke into a laugh. He
adored Undine's "smartness," which was of precisely the same quality
as his own. "Oh, that's another thing: you can always trust me to look
after you!"
"With your reputation? Much obliged!"
Van Degen smiled. She knew he liked such allusions, and was pleased that
she thought him compromising.
"Oh, I'm as good as gold. You've made a new man of me!"
"Have I?" She considered him in silence for a moment. "I wonder what
you've done to me but make a discontented woman of me--discontented with
everything I had before I knew you?"
The change of tone was thrilling to him. He forgot her mockery, forgot
his rival, and sat down at her side, almost in possession of her waist.
"Look here," he asked, "where are we going to dine to-night?"
His nearness was not agreeable to Undine, but she liked his free way,
his contempt for verbal preliminaries. Ralph's reserves and delicacies,
his perpetual desire that he and she should be attuned to the same key,
had always vaguely bored her; whereas in Van Degen's manner she felt a
hint of the masterful way that had once subdued her in Elmer Moffatt.
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