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I dont think youre mad, she said, quietly. I only think youre too Quixotic. Youre sorry for me and you are letting a kind impulse carry you away, as you did last night at the casino. Its like you. For the first time he turned towards her. I dont know what you suppose I am, he said, but Ill tell you. Im a clerk in an insurance office. I get a hundred a year and ten days holiday. Did you take me for a millionaire? If I am, Im only a tuppenny one. Somebody left me a thousand pounds a few weeks ago. Thats how I come to be here. Now you know all about me. I dont know anything about you except that I shall never love anybody else. Marry me, and well go to Canada together. You say Ive helped you out of your groove. Well, Ive only one chance of getting out of mine, and thats through you. If you wont help me, I dont care if I get out of it or not. Will you pull me out? She did not speak. She sat looking out to sea, past the many-coloured crowd. He watched her face, but her hat shaded her eyes and he could read nothing in it. And then, suddenly, without quite knowing how it had got there, he found that her hand was in his, and he was clutching it as a drowning man clutches a rope. He could see her eyes now, and there was a message in them that set his heart racing. A great content filled him. She was so companionable, such a friend. It seemed incredible to him that it was only yesterday they had met for the first time. And now, she said, would you mind telling me your name? The little waves murmured as they rolled lazily up the beach. Somewhere behind the trees in the gardens a band had begun to play. The breeze, blowing in from the blue Mediterranean, was charged with salt and happiness. And from a seat on the promenade a young man swept the crowd with a defiant gaze. It isnt true, it seemed to say. Im not a jelly-fish. |
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