Eugene answered curtly: “I don’t know. If you want to find me, I suppose I shall be at the same place, for a time.”
“And after that?—Where will you go?”
“I don’t know,” he answered brusquely again. “I haven’t thought about it yet. I’ve got to wait until I get money to go away on.”
The flush in Starwick’s ruddy face deepened perceptibly, and, after another pause, and with obvious embarrassment, he continued as before:
“Look! Where are you going now?”
“I don’t know, Francis,” he said curtly. “To the hotel, I suppose, to leave my suitcase and see if they’ve still got a room for me. If I don’t see you again, I’ll say good-bye to you now.”
Starwick’s embarrassment had become painful to watch; he did not speak for another moment, then said:
“Look! Do you mind if I come along with you?”
He did mind; he wanted to be alone; to get away as soon as he could from Starwick’s presence and all the hateful memories it evoked, but he said shortly:
“You can come along if you like, of course, but I see no reason why you should. If you’re going to the studio we can take a taxi and you can drop me at the hotel. But if you’re meeting somebody over on this side later on, why don’t you wait over here for him?”
Starwick’s face was flaming with shame and humiliation; he seemed to have difficulty in pronouncing his words and when he finally turned to speak, the other youth was shocked to see in his eyes a kind of frantic, naked desperation.
“Then, look!” he said, and moistened his dry lips. “Could you let me have some—some money, please?”
Something strangely like terror and entreaty looked out of his eyes:
“I’ve got to have it,” he said desperately.
“How much do you want?”
Starwick was silent, and then muttered:
“I could get along with 500 francs.”
The other calculated swiftly: the sum amounted at the time to about thirty dollars. It was almost half his total remaining funds but—one look at the desperate humiliation and entreaty of Starwick’s face, and a surge of savage, vindictive joy swept through him—it would be worth it.
“All right,” he nodded briefly, and started to walk forward again.
