elfish always take themselves seriously."

It was she, however, who now sat there bright-eyed and unsmiling, and he
was still laughing, deftly balancing his crop on one finger, and
glancing at her from time to time with that glimmer of ever-latent
mockery which always made her restive at first, then irritated her with
an unreasoning desire to hurt him somehow. But she never seemed able to
reach him.

"Sooner or later," she said, "women will find you out, thoroughly."

"And then, just think what a rush there will be to marry me!"

"There will be a rush to avoid you, Duane. And it will set in before you
know it--" She thought of the recent gossip coupling his name with
Rosalie's, reddened and bit her lip in silence. But somehow the thought
irritated her into speech again:

"Fortunately, I was among the first to find you out--the first, I
think."

"Heavens! when was that?" he asked in pretended concern, which
infuriated her.

"You had better not ask me," she flashed back. "When a woman suddenly
discovers that a man is untrustworthy, do you think she ever forgets
it?"

"Because I once kissed you? What a dreadful deed!"

"You forget the circumstances under which you did it."

He flushed; she had managed to hurt him, after all. He began patiently:

"I've explained to you a dozen times that I didn't know----"

"But I _told_ you!"

"And I couldn't believe you----"

"But you expect me to believe _you_?"

He could not exactly interpret her bright, smiling, steady gaze.

"The trouble with you is," she said, "that there is nothing to you but
good looks and talent. There was once, but it died--over in
Europe--somewhere. No woman trusts a man like you. Don't you know it?"

His smile did not seem to be very genuine, but he answered lightly:

"When I ask people to have confidence in me, it will be time for them to
pitch into me."

"Didn't you once ask me for your confidence--and then abuse it?" she
demanded.

"I told you I loved you--if that is what you mean. And you doubted it so
strenuously that, perhaps I might be excused for doubting it myself....
What is the use of talking this way, Geraldine?"

There was a ring of exasperation in her laughter. She lifted his glass,
sipped a little, and, looking over it at him:

"I drink to our doubts concerning each other: may nothing ever occur to
disturb them."

Her cheeks had begun to burn, her eyes were too bright, her voice
unmodulated.

"Whether or not you ev