'A great deal more than a toy. Once I thought of you only as a child, a helpless, irritating, adorable child, always looking for trouble, and turning to me for help when the trouble came.'
'And then?'
'Then you made me think of you as a woman,' he replied gravely.
'You seemed to hesitate a good deal before deciding to think of me as that.'
'Yes, I tried to judge our position by ordinary codes; you must have thought me ridiculous.'
'I did, darling.' Her mouth twisted drolly as she said it.
'I wonder now how I could have insulted you by applying them to you,' he said with real wonderment; everything seemed so clear and obvious to him now.
'Why, how do you think of me now?'
'Oh, God knows!' he replied. 'I've called you changeling sometimes, haven't I?' He decided to question her. 'Tell me, Eve, how do you explain your difference? you outrage every accepted code, you see, and yet one retains one's belief in you. Is one simply deluded by your charm? or is there a deeper truth? can you explain?' He had spoken in a bantering tone, but he knew that he was trying an experiment of great import to him.
'I don't think I'm different, Julian; I think I feel things strongly, no more.'