"You can get on better without her than I can," said Randolph, with erect head and triumphantly happy eyes. "And I think it is her turn to be taken care of. You people down here seem to regard her as a general help, one whom you can send for at a moment's notice, if you get into any sort of trouble. I am going to stop all that, for she is worn-out in working for others."
"Never!" said Sidney, looking up at him with kindling eyes. "Don't you know that is a woman's highest ideal, to be wanted?"
"Then that ideal will be realised, for I have only half lived since I met you first, and then had to part from you."
"It's just another form of selfishness," said Monica dryly. "She will have to centre herself round one individual, instead of round many."
Randolph laughed lightheartedly.
"You have me there," he said; "but I'm not going to take her to a desert island. She is going to help me at Empire building."
A sharp line showed itself between Monica's brows.
"Oh, this building!" she exclaimed. "It is getting on my nerves."
Sidney bent over her and kissed her.
"We won't talk about it any more, Monnie, and you are not going to lose me yet, not for a long time."