"You have a good lunch
and you'll feel better! What are they giving you? Champagne?"
"Oh no, of course not!"
"Well, why not? It's the very thing you want. Just the occasion.
What? You sit still and I'll go and see about it!" He put her down
among her cushions, but she clung to him still. "No, don't go for a
minute!" she said, with a shaky smile. "It's so good to have
you--kind to me for once."
"Good gracious!" he said, but half in jest. "Am I such a brute as
all that?"
She pushed back her sleeve and mutely showed him the marks upon her arm.
He looked, and his brows drew together. "My doing?"
She nodded. "Last night--when--when I said--something you didn't
like--about Mr. Green."
He scowled a moment longer, then abruptly stooped, took the white arm
between his hands and kissed it. "I'll get a stick and beat you the next
time," he said. "You remember that--and be decent to Green, see?"
The kiss belied the words, covering also a certain embarrassment which
Vera was not slow to perceive. Because of it she found strength to
abstain from further argument. He had undoubtedly conceded a good deal.
"I'll be decent to anyone," she said, "so long as you are decent to me.
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