“Of course it is.... And that’s enough of this sort of talk, isn’t it? I don’t always talk this way, really. I’m quite pleasant and frivolous most of the time.... You’re not to be stationed here by any chance?”
“No such luck.”
She laughed. “I wouldn’t have time to bother with you, anyhow, if you were meaning that as a compliment.... I’ve got at least a regiment of young men, and I sha’n’t be partial.... Besides, there’s that pretty little French girl.... I liked her looks.... Tell the truth, you’d be heartbroken if you were sent away from Paris and her.”
Andree!... He had scarcely remembered her existence for twenty-four hours. And only the night before last he had been telling her that he loved her, and kissing her good-by! He felt ashamed of himself. He felt ashamed because he felt that he was not being true to the love he professed for her—in his thoughts and in the pleasure which he found in the presence of Maude Knox.... He was in love with Andree, but—confound it all!—was it possible he could be falling in love with Maude Knox, too? He had heard that people and books asserted a man could be in love with two women at once.... If this were so, he said to himself, it would create a devilish unpleasant situation ... and a situation not without an element to cause laughter. If a man loved two girls, he would have to choose one of them. In which case he would be, at the same instant, in a state of bliss because he had won a sweetheart and in a state of heartbreak because he had been thwarted in love!...
“I wish you could know Andree,” he said. “She—she’s educating me, I guess. I don’t understand her, of course. She is constantly startling me. I never knew anybody who in the least resembled her.”
“Of course not.... She’s French. She’s a war-time Parisienne.”
“But she’s good,” said Kendall, as if Maude had brought some charge against Andree.
“Why not?” Maude smiled a trifle.
“You mustn’t think—” he began.
“I’m thinking nothing. It’s none of my business.” She paused. “Frankly, I don’t care.... Now don’t misunderstand that. I like you, Kendall. I’m interested in you. There was a time when, if I suspected of a man what you seem to think I suspect of you, I would have cut him in a hurry.... And the girl—I would have been horrified.... But now—I don’t quite understand myself—I wouldn’t in the least object to knowing your Andree.”