"Why not?"
"I—don't know how he'll take it."
"What?"
Molly flushed: "We didn't want one. I don't know what he'll say. We didn't care for them——"
Strelsa's angry beauty checked her with its silent scorn; suddenly her pretty head fell forward on Strelsa's breast:
"Don't look that way at me! I was a fool. How was I to know—anything? I'd never had one.... You can't know whether you want a baby or not until you have one.... I know now. I'm crazy about it.... I think it would—would kill me if Jim is annoyed——"
"He won't be, darling!" whispered Strelsa. "Don't mind what he says anyway. He's only a man. He never even knew as much about it as you did. What do men know, anyway? Jim is a dear—just the regular sort of man interested in business and sport and probably afraid that a baby might interfere with both. What does he know about it?... Besides he's too decent to be annoyed——"
"I'm afraid—I can't stand—even his indifference—" whimpered Molly.
Strelsa, holding her clasped to her breast, started to speak, but a noise of men in the outer hall silenced her—the aviators returning from their hangars and gathering in the billiard-room for a long one before dressing.
"Wait," whispered Strelsa, gently disengaging herself—"wait just a moment——"