e,
with any pretensions to being a gentleman, had paid her much attention
before I arrived on the scene.

LILY.

[_In a murmur._] No; nobody.

JEYES.

I didn't find out that I was in love with her-- you guess it's a love
story, don't you?----

FARNCOMBE.

[_Delicately._] My dear Captain Jeyes----

JEYES.

I didn't find out that I was neck and heels in love with her until
nearly a year afterwards, when my regiment went to the Curragh. _That_
did it-- separation! What I suffered in that hole, thinking of her,
starving for her! In less than three months I was in London again, on
leave, and in my old stall at the Pandora. But even then, Farncombe, I
hadn't your pluck.

FARNCOMBE.

Pluck?

JEYES.

The pluck to snap my fingers at the world and propose marriage to a
Pandora girl. Besides, my mother was alive then, and-- [_abruptly,
with a wild look_] would you like to know what _she_ used to call
these Pandora women, Farncombe? [_Bending forward, his hands tightly
clenched._] She used to call them _a menace to society_. With their
beauty, and their flagrant opportunities for displaying it, they are a
living curse, she used to say-- a source of constant dread to mothers
whose hope it is to see their sons safely mated to modest, maidenly
girls of the typical English pattern. She told us once-- my brothers
and me-- frightened as to where _we_ were drifting, that she was one
of many mothers who prayed on their knees daily that their boys might
be spared from being drawn into the net woven by their own weaknesses
and passions-- drawn into it by these-- these----! [_He breaks off,
stares about him for a moment, and then rises._] Oh, but I oughtn't to
have repeated this to _you_. Pardon. [_Walking away unsteadily._] Ho,
damned bad taste! [_Behind the table, supporting himself by leaning
upon it._] Where was I? Back from the Curragh! [_Confused._] Yes--
yes-- and so things went on for a couple o' years-- I trailing after
Lily closer than ever-- and at last-- at last I _did_ ask her to be my
wife.

LILY.

[_Who has been listening to JEYES with parted lips and wide-open
eyes-- appealingly._] Don't! Don't, Nicko; don't!

JEYES.

[_Oblivious of her interruption._] But I'd left it too late. The
novelty of me had worn off; she'd scores of friends by that time;
she'd made her big hit, and followed it with another, and was the talk
o' the town. And she'd money; she wasn't dependent on _me_ any longer
for her gloves