"Then I think that it was exceedingly nice of you," he said, "and I appreciate the compliment. Really," he went on, with a smile, "I think we are quite safe, aren't we? You are known as a man-hater, and you are allowed special privileges because you are what you are. And I am known to be in love with another woman."
She frowned slightly.
"Does the whole world, then, know of your infatuation?" she asked.
"It may know, for all I care," John replied simply. "I am hoping that after Monday Louise will let me announce it."
There was a short silence. A portion of the log fell to the hearth, and John carefully replaced it upon the fire.
"Do you remember," she asked, dropping her voice almost to a whisper, "what I said to you the first night we met at Covent Garden, before I had any particular interest in you, before I had come to like you?"
John made no reply. Why did she again remind him of what she had said that night?
"I advised you," she went on, "not to be too rash. I think I told you that there were better things."
"There is no better thing in the world," John said simply, "than to give every feeling of which you are capable to the woman you love."
She frowned and threw her cigarette into the hearth.