esitate."

"I--hesitate--yes, certainly I do. It's absurd on the face of it. She's
too fine a nature to be patronised--too inexperienced in the things of
your world--too ignorant of petty conventions and formalities--too free
and fearless and confident and independent to appeal to the world you
live in."

"Isn't that a rather scornful indictment against my world, dear?"

"No. Your world is all right in its way. You and I were brought up in
it. I got out of it. There are other worlds. The one I now inhabit is
more interesting to me. It's purely a matter of personal taste, dear.
Valerie West inhabits a world that suits her."

"Has she had any choice in the matter?"

"I--yes. She's had the sense and the courage to keep out of the various
unsafe planets where electric light furnishes the principal
illumination."

"But has she had a chance for choosing a better planet than the one you
say she prefers? Your choice was free. Was hers?"

"Look here, Lily! Why on earth are you so significant about a girl you
never saw--scarcely ever heard of--"

"Dear, I have not told you everything. I _have_ heard of her--of her
charm, her beauty, her apparent innocence--yes, her audacity, her
popularity with men.... Such things are not unobserved and unreported
between your new planet and mine. Harry Annan is frankly crazy about
her, and his sister Alice is scared to death. Mr. Ogilvy, Mr. Burleson,
Clive Gail, dozens of men I know are quite mad about her.... If it was
she whom you used as model for the figures in the Byzantine decorations,
she is divine--the loveliest creature to look at! And I don't care,
Louis; I don't care a straw one way or the other except that I know you
have never bothered with the more or less Innocently irregular gaieties
which attract many men of your age and temperament. And so--when I hear
that you are frequently seen--"

"Frequently?"

"Is that St. Regis affair the only one?"

"No, of course not. But, as for my being with her frequently--"

"Well?"

He was silent for a moment, then, looking up with a laugh:

"I like her immensely. Until this moment I didn't realise how much I do
like her--how pleasant it is to be with a girl who is absolutely
fearless, clever, witty, intelligent, and unspoiled."

"Are there no girls in your own set who conform to this standard?"

"Plenty. But their very environment and conventional traditions kill
them--make them a nuisance."

"Louis!"

"That's more plain