"Why not go over as you are?"
"They won't let me now. But some day they will. I can drive a car—there ought to be a place for me."
"There is one for me," he said, "and my decision must be made tonight. They are asking me to head a hospital staff in France. A letter came this morning, and I've got to answer it."
Her eyes went to the flame-white maiden on the other side of the table. "What does Jean say?"
"I haven't asked her. She wouldn't keep me back. But I am all she has, and it would hurt."
"It would hurt. But you are not all that she has—you might as well try to sweep back the sea as to stop what is going on over there. I have been sitting here green with envy. Oh, if love might only come to me like that."
"Like what?"
"Heaven-sent—never a doubt, never a speculation; just knowing and believing—souls stripped bare of all pretence."
How splendid she was—how beautiful! He bent down to her. "Why shouldn't it come to you?"
"Men don't love me that way. They admire and respect and then love. But Jean? She's a moon maiden, luring them to—madness." She smiled up at him.