"What's the use of loving a man who won't speak his mind? Dickey always lives in the moon, and I only love him from habit.
"You never loved me from habit," I remarked lazily.
Mabel put her head on one side, and surveyed me critically. "No, I never did," she said candidly, "and yet you're better-looking than Dickey. But he's got a way with him--I don't know what it is."
"Absent-mindedness," suggested Cannington. "May we smoke, Mab?"
"Oh, yes, and you can give me a cigarette also, if they're Egyptian. Thanks awfully." She accepted one, and I struck a match for the lighting. "Of course, Dickey Weston is absent-minded and selfish," she continued frankly. "All the same, I love him and I don't mind anyone knowing it."
"Every one does, except Dickey," said I with a shrug.
"I suppose you think that's clever."
"It's the truth. After all, I don't see why you need be shy with a man you have known for centuries. Why not go to Dickey and tell him that you want to marry him and go trips in his airship?"
"Dickey would agree, and never know what had happened until he found me breakfasting opposite to him without a chaperon. Well, what's to be done?" She leaned back, and placed her hands behind her head. "Dickey won't ask me to be his wife, and Mr. Marr--who is rich--wants me to marry him right away."
"Do you love Marr, Mabel?" asked Cannington seriously.