"I don't know if I can say," he answered, at last. "But I think if the present was happy I should try to live in that, and if it was sad I should have a shot at looking forward to something better."
"That's one of the best philosophies I ever heard," said Hermione, "and after my own heart. Long live the philosophy of Maurice Delarey!"
Delarey blushed with pleasure like a boy. Just then three men came in smoking cigars. Hermione looked at her watch.
"Past eleven," she said. "I think I'd better go. Emile, will you drive with me home?"
"I!" he said, with an unusual diffidence. "May I?"
He glanced at Delarey.
"I want to have a talk with you. Maurice quite understands. He knows you go back to Paris to-morrow."
They all got up, and Delarey at once held out his hand to Artois.
"I am glad to have been allowed to meet Hermione's best friend," he said, simply. "I know how much you are to her, and I hope you'll let me be a friend, too, perhaps, some day."
He wrung Artois's hand warmly.