"Since that other year, so long ago. We mustn't forget there are other years, though we can't quite recall them. If there hadn't been, we shouldn't be hearing the nightingale to-night and talking without words. You see it's a good while since I saw you. How old are you?"
"Twenty-five."
"Twenty-five! A quarter of a century. That's a long time. Well, what have you been doing all that twenty-five years?"
She seemed to shrink into herself, as if a hand had struck her.
"Don't!" she breathed. "Don't ask me to remember."
"Why, no! not if it troubles you."
"Troubles me! it kills me. Can't we begin now?"
"We will begin now. There, playmate, don't shiver. I feel you're doing it through the moonlight. Don't let your chin tremble either. It did, that night down in the shack."
"When I was talking about Electra?"
"I guess so. Anyway it trembled a lot, and I made up my mind it mustn't any more. Cheer up, playmate. Be a man."