e Robinson Crusoes.
And what we do on our own little island matters to us alone. As for the
infinite crowds of howling savages outside there in the unspeakable, all
you've got to do is mind they don't scrap you."

"But WON'T they?" said Struthers.

"Not unless you put your head in their hands," said Lilly.

"I don't know--" said Jim.

But the curtain had risen, they hushed him into silence.

All through the next scene, Julia puzzled herself, as to whether she
should go down to the country and live with Scott. She had carried on a
nervous kind of _amour_ with him, based on soul sympathy and emotional
excitement. But whether to go and live with him? She didn't know if she
wanted to or not: and she couldn't for her life find out. She was in
that nervous state when desire seems to evaporate the moment fulfilment
is offered.

When the curtain dropped she turned.

"You see," she said, screwing up her eyes, "I have to think of
Robert." She cut the word in two, with an odd little hitch in her
voice--"ROB-ert."

"My dear Julia, can't you believe that I'm tired of being thought of,"
cried Robert, flushing.

Julia screwed up her eyes in a slow smile, oddly cogitating.

"Well, who AM I to think of?" she asked.

"Yourself," said Lilly.

"Oh, yes! Why, yes! I never thought of that!" She gave a hurried little
laugh. "But then it's no FUN to think about oneself," she cried flatly.
"I think about ROB-ert, and SCOTT." She screwed up her eyes and peered
oddly at the company.

"Which of them will find you the greatest treat," said Lilly
sarcastically.

"Anyhow," interjected Robert nervously, "it will be something new for
Scott."

"Stale buns for you, old boy," said Jim drily.

"I don't say so. But--" exclaimed the flushed, full-blooded Robert, who
was nothing if not courteous to women.

"How long ha' you been married? Eh?" asked Jim.

"Six years!" sang Julia sweetly.

"Good God!"

"You see," said Robert, "Julia can't decide anything for herself. She
waits for someone else to decide, then she puts her spoke in."

"Put it plainly--" began Struthers.

"But don't you know, it's no USE putting it plainly," cried Julia.

"But DO you want to be with Scott, out and out, or DON'T you?" said
Lilly.

"Exactly!" chimed Robert. "That's the question for you to answer Julia."

"I WON'T answer it," she cried. "Why should I?" And she looked away into
the restless hive of the theatre. She spoke so wildly that she attracted