"Is she still living?"
"No, or he'd be with her…. He has never spoken to me of her. And yet I'm sure she is the unseen glow upon his life. I think he would tell you about her. Only a woman could draw that from him…. He saw no one but you last night; did all his talking to you, Beth."
"I'm the flaringest, flauntingest posy in the garden. I call the bees first," she said dryly, but there was a flitting of ghostly memories through her mind. "And then I'm an extraordinary listener."
"Beth," he said solemnly, "no one knows better than I, that it is you who send the bees away."
She laughed at him. "We found each other out in time, David…. Too much artist between us. We'd surely taint each other, don't you see?"
"I never could see that——"
"That's being polite; and one must be polite…. We are really fine friends, better than ever after to-day, and that's something for a pair of incomplete New Yorkers."
There was a pause.
"Beth," said Cairns. "Shall I bring Bedient over to-morrow?"
"No, please. At least not to-morrow."