much more romantic than a
wounded soldier. If he lives through it, he always proposes the very
next day either to the nurse or to the ambulance-driver, whereas a Tommy,
after his third wound, becomes so _blase_.'

'You shouldn't torture me,' he said, wincing noticeably under the
incision of her words.

Just for a fleeting instant her eyes were softened with a tender look of
self-reproach. His heart warmed at the sight, but before he could
convince himself that it was not a creation of his own fancy, it had
passed, and once more she was holding him at bay with her impersonal
abruptness.

'Will you tell me about yourself?' he urged. 'Please.'

'What do you want to know?'

'Everything--everything!' he blurted out, impetuously leaning forward.
'My heavens! Don't you know how I've longed and waited for this moment
ever since that night at your flat? I want to hear all about you--what
you've done, where you've been, and--and in what mysterious way you've
changed.'

'Have I changed?'

'Of course you have. You're trying to appear just as you were when we
first met, but you can't do it. Even if I hadn't noticed the difference
in you, I should have known that no one could live through these times
and remain the same.'

'Why not? Haven't you?'

He laughed grimly, and his head sank back on the pillows. 'I want to
know all about you, Elise,' he repeated dully.

'Very well.' She smoothed her skirt with her hands, and folded them
Quakeress-fashion.

'As you know, I once had a flat in Park Walk--which I shared with various
and variegated female patriots, also engaged in guiding the destinies of
motor-cars. Edna was the first one to follow Marian, after she and I
quarrelled; but Edna couldn't break herself of the habit of wandering
into the Ritz for luncheon every second day with only a shilling in her
pocket.'

'But I don't see how'----

'You poor innocent! Some one always paid--don't worry. So we parted
company on that issue, and I asked Mabel to take Edna's place. Mabel was
frightfully nice, but took to opium cigarettes, and then to heroin. She
disappeared one night, and never came back. Poor girl! Her going made
room for Lily, who read the very nicest modern novels, and always cried
through the love scenes. I wish you could have seen her sitting up in
bed reading a book, eating chocolates, and sobbing like a crocodile.
Lily had only one weakness--marrying Flying Corps officers. It was
really the