"No," she said.
"That," said Stafford, "was certainly quick action. Ten minutes is a pretty short time for Fate to begin business."
"Fate," remarked Duane, "once got busy with me inside of ten seconds." He looked at Athalie.
"Ut solent poetae," she rejoined, calmly.
I said: "Verba placent et vox, et quod corrumpere non est; Quoque minor spes est, hoc magis ille cupit."
In a low voice Duane replied to me, looking at her: "Vera incessu patuit Dea."
Slowly the girl blushed, lowering her dark eyes to the green jade god resting in the rosy palm of her left hand.
"Physician, cure thyself," muttered Stafford, slowly twisting a cigarette to shreds in his nervous hands.
I rose, walked over to the small marble fountain and looked down at the sleeping goldfish. Here and there from the dusky magnificence of[252] their colour a single scale glittered like a living spark under water.