"What about second childhood?" laughed the irrepressible Mavis.
"Seriously, I didn't. I always felt so old. And it's little Mavis who has done it all."
"Really, sweetheart?"
"All, dear."
She rewarded him with a glance of love and tenderness.
He went on:
"The past is all over and done with. I made a fresh start from the day you promised to throw in your exquisite self with me."
Thus he would talk, expressing, at the same time, boundless confidence in the future, forgetful or ignorant of what has been well said, "That the future is only entering the past by another gate."
One evening, when he had made bitter reference to the life that he had led, before he had again met with her, she asked:
"What is this dreadful past you're always regretting so keenly?"