Elaine jerked her head up, staring at him in pure amazement.
“That startles you?” he asked somberly.
“Not the suggestion,” she said. “I’m no bread and butter miss. But that it should come from you . . . !”
“Oh, leave me out of it! Look on me as a sort of disembodied voice. . . . It would be better than marriage, wouldn’t it?”
No answer from Elaine.
“This thing is strong only when you oppose it. Give in to it, and you’ll discover its insignificance. . . .”
Elaine looked at him startled; then closely hid her eyes again.
“. . . Bad morality, but good commonsense,” said Wilfred with a jangling laugh.
Elaine said in her casual voice: “They say that infatuation grows on what it feeds upon.”
“I don’t mean for a night,” he said bluntly. “Go away with him. Stay with him as long as you want. He could not take anything from you that mattered, if you were not bound. . . .”