"Only as long as I'm young enough to be forgetful. Old age is a horror—in some cases. I don't desire ever to be forty. After forty they say one lives on memory. I don't wish to."
Through the slits of his mask his curious eyes watched her steadily.
"You're not yet twenty-four," he said.
"Not quite. That is a good guess, Harlequin."
"And you don't want to live to be old?"
"No, I don't wish to."
"But you are rather keen on living while you're young."
"I've never thought much about it. If I live, it's all right; if I die, I don't think I'll mind it.... I'm sure I shouldn't."
Her cigarette had gone out. She tossed it aside and daintily consented to exchange cigarettes with him, offering her little gold case.
"You're carefully inspecting my initials, aren't you?" she observed, amused. "But that monogram will not help you, Master Harlequin."