"Oh, come now, Bess!" grinned Dane.
"Well, I wouldn't, and I imagine I'd have some rights in the matter."
"Now we're getting back to Simec's hostia honoraria and hostia piacularis," laughed Bates.
"It is a new viewpoint," sighed Evelyn. "Curiously, I hadn't thought of that."
She smiled across the table at her husband, but he was slouched in his chair, his eyes staring vacantly over her head.
"Of course you'd all do it, every one," he said presently. "The trouble now is that you are attempting to visualize the tragic part of it and not considering the humanitarian side—the great good that would come of the sacrifice. When you look at it that way you would be willing to do it—and think it a mighty darn cheap exchange."
"Well, perhaps so," grumbled Allison. "But I can't help thinking I'm glad I don't have to face the alternative."
Evelyn turned swiftly toward Sybil Latham, under the impression that she had made some little exclamation or that she had checked one. But her face was hard and inscrutable.
"Let's change the subject." Evelyn laughed self-consciously. "It's so far-fetched; it's getting a bit on my nerves."
Even as she spoke she knew that Simec had resumed his seat, although he had made no sound and her eyes were upon her husband. She was thus not surprised to hear his voice.