"You win!" he laughed. "The temptation passes—for to-night."
Half an hour later, the coffee finished, Mrs. Lorraine arose and went into the house. Presently a servant very quietly summoned Pendleton to the telephone. Stephanie was on the landing when he entered the hall, and she met him at the foot of the stairs.
"I'm the telephone," she remarked.
"I had hoped so," he smiled. "Where shall we go?"
"On the side piazza, where the lights are not burning."
He held back the portieres, and they went through the library and out into the star-light night, where the silver crescent of the moon was cutting its way toward the western horizon. All was still save for the faint hum of voices at the front and occasional laughter.
"It's a perfect night!" she breathed. "How much better the country is for one than the dirt and noise and bustle of the big town. The peace and calm—the dolce far niente of it all—is very, very restful."
"It's the place for women who don't have to work—and the men who can afford not to," he said. "Everyone is gravitating toward the country—the pure air, the pure water—the simple life that is not quite so simple as it once was."
"But it's simpler than town life—heaps simpler," as she led the way to a remote corner, where two chairs stood apart.
She took one.—He drew the other close over, and sitting on the arm reached down and took her hand.