"Yes. Is Charmian invited?"
Max Elliot looked at Charmian, and she steadily returned his gaze.
"You know," he said after a pause, "that you've got a certain hankering after lions?"
"Hankering! Don't, don't!"
"But you really have!"
"I will not be put with the vulgar crowd like that. I do not care for lions. Tigers are my taste."
He laughed.
"Do come then. But remember, there are plants which can only grow in darkness. And I believe this is one of them."
When Max Elliot had gone, Charmian sat for two or three minutes looking into the fire, where pale, steely-blue lights played against the prevailing gold and red. All the absurdity, the nonsense, had dropped away from her.
"Max Elliot seems quite afraid of me," she said at last. "Am I so very vulgar?"