He said, reddening: "I do not remember that my sense of duty toward you has ever been persistent enough to embarrass either of us."
"Of course not. Why should you ever have felt that you owed any duty to me?"
"I did not say that I ever felt it."
"Of course not. You owed me none."
"That is a different matter. Obligations once sat very lightly on my shoulders."
"You owe me none," she repeated smilingly, as they emerged from the church into the warm March sunshine.
He was saying: "But isn't friendship an obligation, Cynthia?"
She laughed: "Friendship is merely an imaginary creation, and exists only until the imagination wearies. That is not original," she added. "It is in the new Barrie comedy we are rehearsing."
She turned her pretty head and glanced down the street where Jacqueline and Desboro still stood beside the car. Cairn's car was also waiting, and its owner made a signal to the chauffeur that he did not need him.
Looking at Jacqueline, Cynthia said: