"I go with him to Vancouver," she said.
Dick wrung his hands. "But I daren't marry you, Viviette, I daren't, I daren't."
"Don't you see that it's impossible, Viviette?" said Austin.
"Why?"
"I've explained it to Dick. He has hinted it to you. You're scarcely old enough to understand, my dear. It is the risk you run."
"Such men as I can't marry," said Dick loyally. "You don't understand. Austin is right. The risk is too great."
She laughed in superb contempt.
"The risk? Do you think I'm such a fool as not to understand? Do you think, after what I've said, that I'm a child? Risk? What is life or love worth without risk? When a woman loves a fierce man she takes the risk of his fierceness. It's her joy. I'll take the risk, and it will be a bond between us."
Austin implored her to listen to reason. She swept his arguments aside.
"God forbid. I'll listen to love," she cried. "And if ever a man wanted love, it's Dick. Reason! Come, Dick, let us leave this god and goddess of reason alone. I've got something to say which only you can hear."