He may even give money to his lover, if you wish us to ignore the ceremony terms in our dealings with each other. I’m not buying you, you ridiculous child. Good Lord! you do carry your theories over the mountains and into the sea, don’t you? What is it you suspect me of? For I can see suspicion in your eyes.”
“I’m beginning to suspect you of the sinister innocence of the drop of water that wears away the stone,” she said, half smiling, half glaring at him.
“The stone doesn’t mind.”
She had risen, and she now dropped down into his arms.
“I must seem a bit queer, dear. And, please, I think it’s lovely of you.”
Two weeks later her father sent her five hundred pounds as a peace offering and as a wedding present. The night she received it she sat out late by herself on the balcony. She had now almost two thousand pounds, and one of the reasons for her staying on the News had ceased to exist. It was this fact that she sat there considering.
But she had considered other things besides money in her decision to go on with her work. She felt very strongly that love was soonest killed by its own tendency to burn itself up. She had already learned that she and Dane were potently stimulating to each other, and that it would be difficult living together every day to preserve the balance between abandonment and discipline that she desired.
And then she liked the contrast between her week of activity and her week-end of petting and luxurious relaxation. She had a fresh thrill every Saturday afternoon when she met Dane at the launch, and she had another kind of stimulation when she walked into the office on Monday morning.
He had not said one word to shake her decision. But
