"I was never so much surprised in all my life."
If his smile was ready it did not fail to betray a touch of vanity that was almost childlike.
"And yet there was a time when you yourself rather liked me," he retorted with his intimate and penetrating glance.
"Was there?" She avoided his look though her tone was almost insolent, "my dear fellow, I never in my life liked you better than I like you at this minute—but we are speaking now of Laura's liking not of mine. Oh, Arnold, Arnold, I am in a quake of fear."
"About Laura? Then get over it and don't be silly."
"And you are honestly and truly and terribly in earnest?"
"My dear girl, I'm going to marry her—isn't that enough? Does a man commit suicide except when he's sincere?"
Her shallow cynicism had dropped from her now, and she turned toward him with an unaffected anxiety in her face.
"Then it will last—it must."
"Last!" An expression of irritation showed in his eyes, and he shrugged his shoulders with an impatient movement. "Of course it won't last—nothing does. If you want the eternal you must seek it in eternity."