an
prided herself upon her lack of illusion. To be sure, she occasionally
permitted Roland to kiss her in celebration of their engagement, but
such caresses left her unperturbed; her pulses had never been stirred.
She looked upon marriage as a somewhat trying, although necessary,
institution. Van Dam, being equally modern and equally satiated by
life's blessings, shared her beliefs in a vague way.

Manifestly, no lover could allow such an assertion as this to go
unchallenged, so he rose to the defense of romance, only to hear her
say:

"Nonsense! Do be sensible, Roly. Such things aren't done nowadays."

"What things aren't done?"

"Oh, those crude, primitive performances we read about in novels. Nice
people don't fall in love overnight, for instance. They don't allow
themselves to hate, and be jealous, and to rage about like wild animals
any more."

"The idea! Your father is a perfect savage, at heart," said Mrs.
Banniman. She nodded at her sleeping husband, who was roused at that
moment by a fly that had strayed into his right nostril. Mr. Banniman
sneezed, half opened his eyes, and murmured a feeble anathema before
dozing off again. It was plain that he was not greatly enjoying the
Mardi Gras.

"All men are primitive," said Roly, quoting some forgotten author, at
which Eleanor eyed him languidly.

"Could you love at first sight and run off with a girl?"

"Certainly not. I'd naturally have to know something about her people--"

"Were you ever jealous?"

"You've never given me an occasion," he told her, gallantly.

"Did you ever hate anybody?"

"Um-m--no!"

"Ever been afraid?"

"Not exactly."

"Revengeful?"

"Certainly not."

She smiled. "It's just as I said. Respectable people don't allow
themselves to be harrowed by crude emotions. I hate my modiste when she
fails to fit me; I was jealous of that baroness at the Poinciana--the
one with all those gorgeous gowns; I'm afraid of flying-machines; but
that is as deep as such things go, nowadays--in our set."

Van Dam was no hand at argument, and he had a great respect for Miss
Banniman's observation; moreover, he had been discussing something of
which he possessed no first-hand knowledge. Therefore, he said nothing
further. No one had a greater appreciation of, or took a keener pleasure
in, life's unruffled placidity than the young society man. No one had a
denser ignorance of its depths, its hidden currents, and its uncharted
channels than he; for