"You can have my photograph--the one over there. Helen
will give you one of hers, too, I am sure, if you ask her. She is
just as grateful to you about Richard as I am."
"But from you," he said earnestly, "I want more than gratitude."
"Dear me, how persistent you are!" Philippa murmured. "Are you
really determined to make love to me?"
"Ah, don't mock me!" he begged. "What I am saying to you comes from
my heart."
Philippa laughed at him quietly. There was just a little break in
her voice, however.
"Don't be absurd!"
"There is nothing absurd about it," he replied, with a note of
sadness in his tone. "I felt it from the moment we met. I struggled
against it, but I have felt it growing day by day. I came here with
my mind filled with different purposes. I had no thought of amusing
myself, no thought of seeking here the happiness which up till now
I seem to have missed. I came as a servant because I was sent, a
mechanical being. You have changed everything. For you I feel what
I have never felt for any woman before. I place before you my career,
my freedom, my honour."
Philippa sighed very softly.
"Do you mind ringing the bell?" she begged.
"The bell?" he repeated. "What for?"
"I want Helen to hear you," she confided, with a wonderful little
smile.
"Philippa, don't mock me," he pleaded.
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