"Otherwise he would never have stirred a step—until to-night."
"That is very gallant of you, Mr. Quarren—but a little sentimental—isn't it?"
"Do you think so?"
"I don't know. I'm a poor judge of real sentiment—being unaccustomed to it."
"How many men made you declarations?"
"Oh; is that real sentiment? I thought it was merely love."
He looked at her. "Don't," he said. "You mustn't harden. Don't become like the rest."
She said, amused, or pretending to be: "You are clever; I have grown hard. To-day I can survey, unmoved, many, many things which I could not even look at yesterday. But it makes life more interesting. Don't you think so?"
"Do you, Mrs. Leeds?"
"I think so.... A woman might as well know the worst truths about life—and about men."