silence within
and without--not the echo of an echo of a gun. G.J. felt as though he
were at bay.

She said:

"People like you and Queen don't want to bother about age. Neither
of you has any age. And I'm not imploring you to have her. I'm only
telling you that she's there for you if you want her. But doesn't
she attract you? Isn't she positively irresistible?" She added with
poignancy: "I know if I were a man I should find her irresistible."

"Just so."

A look of sacrifice came into Concepcion's eyes as she finished:

"I'd do anything, anything, to make Queen happy."

"Yes, you would," retorted G.J. icily, carried away by a ruthless
and inexorable impulse. "You'd do anything to make her happy even for
three months. Yes, to make her happy for three weeks you'd be ready
to ruin my whole life. I know you and Queen." And the mild image of
Christine formed in his mind, soothingly, infinitely desirable. What
balm, after the nerve-racking contact of these incalculable creatures!

Concepcion retired with a gesture of the arm and sat down by the fire.

"You're terrible, G.J.," she said wistfully. "Queen wouldn't be thrown
away on you, but you'd be thrown away on her. I admit it. I didn't
think you had it in you. I never saw a man develop as you have.
Marriage isn't for you. You ought to roam in the primeval forest, and
take and kill."

"Not a bit," said G.J., appeased once more. "Not a bit.... But the new
relations of the sexes aren't in my line."

"_New_? My poor boy, are you so ingenuous after all? There's nothing
very new in the relations of the sexes that I know of. They're much
what they were in the Garden of Eden."

"What do you know of the Garden of Eden?"

"I get my information from Milton," she replied cheerfully, as though
much relieved.

"Have you read _Paradise Lost_, then, Con?"

"I read it all through in my lodgings. And it's really rather good.
In fact, the remarks of Raphael to Adam in the eighth book--I think it
is--are still just about the last word on the relations of the sexes:

"Oft-times nothing profits more
Than self-esteem, grounded on just and right
Well-managed; of that skill the more thou
know'st,
The more she will acknowledge thee her head
_And to realities yield all her shows_."

G.J., marvelling, exclaimed with sudden enthusiasm:

"By Jove! You're an astounding woman, Con. You do me good!"

There was a fresh noise beyond the door, and the door opened and Robin