The Force of Circumstances

"By thunder, Lizzie, but you are actually developing into quite a
beauty!" he exclaimed with almost brutal frankness. "Life on the stage
appears to agree with you; or was it joy at getting rid of me?"

She did not move from where she had taken her first stand against the
background of curtains, nor did the expression upon her face change.

"I presume you did not send for me merely for the purpose of
compliment," she remarked, quietly.

"Well, no; not exactly," and the man laughed with assumed recklessness
in an evident effort to appear perfectly at ease. "I was simply
carried away by the enthusiasm of the moment. I was always, as you
will remember, something of a connoisseur regarding the charms of the
sex, and you have certainly improved wonderfully. Why, I actually
believe I might fall in love with you again if I were to receive the
slightest encouragement."

"I do not think I am offering you any."

"Hardly; even my egotism will not permit me to believe so. An iceberg
would seem warm in comparison. Yet, at least, there is no present
occasion for our quarrelling. Sit down."

"Thank you, I prefer to remain standing. I presume whatever you may
desire to say will not require much time?"

Farnham leaned forward, decidedly jarred from out his assumed mood of
cold sarcasm. He had expected something different, and his face
hardened with definite purpose.