l I went with John Burleson
I had never ever been in a restaurant; until I was engaged by Schindler
I had never seen the city lighted at night--I mean where the theatres
and cafes and hotels are.... And, Mr. Neville, until I came here to you,
I had never had an opportunity to talk to a cultivated man of my own
age--I mean the kind of man you are."

She dropped her eyes, considering, while the smile still played faintly
with the edges of her lips; then:

"Is it very hard for you to realise that what is an ordinary matter of
course to the young of my age is, to me, all a delightful novelty?--that
I am enjoying to a perfectly heavenly degree what to you and others may
be commonplace and uninteresting? All I ask is to be permitted to enjoy
it while I am still young enough. I--I _must_! I really need it, Mr.
Neville. It seems, at moments, as if I could never have enough--after
the years--where I had--nothing."

Neville had begun walking to and fro in front of her with the quick,
decisive step that characterised his movements; but his restlessness
seemed only to emphasise the attention he concentrated on every word she
spoke; and, though he merely glanced at her from moment to moment, she
was conscious that the man now understood, and was responding more
directly to her than ever before in their brief and superficial
acquaintance.

"I don't want to go away and study," she said. "It is perfectly dear of
you to offer it--I--there is no use in trying to thank you--"

"Valerie!"

"What!" she said, startled by his use of her given name for the first
time in their acquaintance.

He said, smilingly grave: "You didn't think there was a string attached
to anything I offered?"

"A--a string?"

"Did you?"

She blushed hotly: "No, of course not."

"It's all right then," he nodded; but she began to think of that new
idea in a confused, startled, helpless sort of way.

"How could you think _that_ of me?" she faltered.

"I didn't--"

"You--it must have been in your mind--"

"I wanted to be sure it wasn't in _yours_--"

"You ought to have known! Haven't you learned anything at all about me
in two months?"

"Do you think any man can learn anything about anybody in two months?"
he asked, lightly.

"Yes, I do. I've learned a good deal about you--enough, anyway, not to
attribute anything--unworthy--"

"You silly child; you've learned nothing about me if that's what you
think you've discovered."

"I _have_ discovered