"Why, Robert, what abysses of passion lurk hidden in you!" she exclaimed mockingly. "I believe you said you'd always treat me just like a man. Do you talk like this to your male chums?" Then demurely: "We'd better go home at once."
On the way home, she resumed the discussion. In a more earnest tone than before, she thanked him for taking so much trouble over her and promised to think about his point of view very carefully. She insisted, however, that his reasoning had not convinced her. She and Claude appeared very well suited to each other now, but who could tell what changes a few years might not bring forth?
"True," said Robert. "But the future is dark to us in other matters besides marriage. As things stand now, Claude couldn't do better, and you might do worse. And if the very worst happened, you could get a divorce."
She replied by reminding him that she and Claude were not the kind of people who lightly repudiated their ties or the responsibilities that grew out of them. Consequently, once married, they would probably remain so for life. In any event, if she changed her mind, it would be infinitely simpler to do so under the other plan.
"Say I grew tired of Claude, for instance, and quite suddenly wanted you," she said with a mischievous look.
"Well, it couldn't be done," said Robert, decisively, her complacent assumption jarring his pride.
"Oh, couldn't it?" She flashed him a challenging glance.
"Not in my case," he returned, in clipped tones. "Free love is the most expensive luxury in the world. Only the very rich or the unambitious can pay for it. As for me, I never can have anything to do either with free love or with a woman who has had a free lover. It would ruin all my plans."
Janet replied with the faintest shrug, whereat all his self-assertion promptly went bang. Neither yielded a point; but they divined each other's feelings and, as they walked on, steered the conversation into lighter channels until they got back to the Lorillard tenements.
Standing in the dark hallway at the foot of the stairs, Janet told him with a touch of impishness that his logic had been irresistible.