years older than I
am--I can see now her burning eyes one night on the river in the June of
1914, when she insinuated, not all playfully, that it would be good to
wed.

"I think you had better take Jim my dear, after all. You are evidently
becoming in love with him and you have proved to me that the physical
charm matters most,--or if you are afraid of that, you had better do as
another little friend of mine does when she is attracted--she takes a
fortnight at the sea!"

"The sea would be awful in this weather! I should send for both in
desperation!" and she laughed and began to take an interest in the
furnishings of my flat. She looked over it, and Burton pointed out all
its merits to her (My crutch hurts my shoulder so much to-day I did not
want to move out of my chair). I could hear Burton's remarks, but they
fell upon unheeding ears--Nina is not cut out for a nurse, my poor
Burton, if you only knew--!

When she returned to my sitting room tea was in, and she poured it out
for me, and then she remarked.

"We have grown so awfully selfish, haven't we, Nicholas, but we aren't
such hypocrites as we were before the war. People still have lovers, but
they don't turn up their eyes so much at other people having them, as
they used. There is more tolerance--the only thing you cannot do is to
act publicly so that your men friends cannot defend you--'You must not
throw your bonnet over the windmills'--otherwise you can do as you
please--."

"You had not thought of taking either Jim or Rochester for a lover to
make certain which you prefer?"

Nina looked unspeakably shocked--.

"What a dreadful idea Nicholas!--I am thinking of both _seriously_, not
only to pass the time of day remember."

"That is all lovers are for, then Nina?--I used to think--."

"Never mind what you thought, there is no reason to insult me."

"Nothing was farther from my desire."

Nina's face cleared, as it had darkened ominously.

"What will you do if, having married Rochester, you find yourself
bored--Will you send for Jim again?"

"Certainly not, that would be disaster. I shan't plunge until I feel
pretty certain I am going to find the water just deep enough, and not
too deep--and if I do make a mistake, well I shall have to stick to it."

"By Jove what a philosopher," and I laughed--She poured out a second cup
of tea, and then she looked steadily at me, as though studying a new
phase of me.

"You are not a bit worse off than Tom Gre