"It's your eyes that I was thinking of, for I'm sure I've never wished
to forget anything till you came up to me that night and looked me
through and through. I know I'm not much account; but I know how to
stand by a man. I stood by father ever since I could understand. He
wasn't a bad chap. Now that I can't be of any use to him, I would just
as soon forget all that and make a fresh start. But these aren't things
that I could talk to you about. What could I ever talk to you about?"

"Don't let it trouble you," Heyst said. "Your voice is enough. I am in
love with it, whatever it says."

She remained silent for a while, as if rendered breathless by this quiet
statement.

"Oh! I wanted to ask you--"

He remembered that she probably did not know his name, and expected the
question to be put to him now; but after a moment of hesitation she went
on:

"Why was it that you told me to smile this evening in the concert-room
there--you remember?"

"I thought we were being observed. A smile is the best of masks.
Schomberg was at a table next but one to us, drinking with some Dutch
clerks from the town. No doubt he was watching us--watching you, at
least. That's why I asked you to smile."

"Ah, that's why. It never came into my head!"

"And you did it very well, too--very readily, as if you had understood
my intention."

"Readily!" she repeated. "Oh, I was ready enough to smile then. That's
the truth. It was the first time for years I may say that I felt
disposed to smile. I've not had many chances to smile in my life, I can
tell you; especially of late."

"But you do it most charmingly--in a perfectly fascinating way."

He paused. She stood still, waiting for more with the stillness of
extreme delight, wishing to prolong the sensation.

"It astonished me," he added. "It went as straight to my heart as though
you had smiled for the purpose of dazzling me. I felt as if I had never
seen a smile before in my life. I thought of it after I left you. It
made me restless."

"It did all that?" came her voice, unsteady, gentle, and incredulous.

"If you had not smiled as you did, perhaps I should not have come out
here tonight," he said, with his playful earnestness of tone. "It was
your triumph."

He felt her lips touch his lightly, and the next moment she was gone.
Her white dress gleamed in the distance, and then the opaque darkness of
the house seemed to swallow it. Heyst waited a little before he went the
same way,