And this despite her three previous marriages, despite her
knowledge of why he had visited her, despite his knowledge of Adair!

Quick as a flash her eyes turned on him with a scarcely perceptible
shake of her head. The door clicked discreetly as Porter left them. It
was like clearing a ring for the second round. The dangerous intimacy,
half tender, half inimical, returned.

"There's no harm in being pleasant," her voice was musical and pleading,
"however unpleasant the circumstances which have thrown us together.
Taking tea with me doesn't set up any social obligation. You won't have
to know me again or anything like that. Now that we understand each
other---- How do you like your tea? Is it two lumps?"

With the tongs poised ready to pounce, she waited for him to tell her.
But he didn't tell her; he smiled inscrutably. He wasn't sure at what
he was smiling. Perhaps it was that he was happy--happy in a
worldly-wise fashion that he had never been with Terry. He could say
anything to this woman and it wouldn't shock her--there was comfort in
that.

But she had scared up a doubt in his mind that he might have mistaken
his kingdom. Perhaps the recovery of youth wasn't everything. There were
things very precious in themselves, which were well lost under certain
circumstances. Maisie's youth, for instance. She was far more enchanting
now than she could ever have been as a girl. In losing her youth she had
gained in sympathy; it was that that made her understand him so well. In
a wife you wanted more than youth--the knowledge of a companion. It
began to dawn on him that there might be truth in what she had said.
Perhaps once again she had known him better than he knew himself. He had
been with her less than an hour. He didn't completely trust her, and yet
here was this astounding fact: by reason of her experience there were
things he could say to her that he would never dream of saying to the
girl whom he believed he loved best. And Adair, he, too----

"You hadn't expected that things would be like this," she was saying,
"just you and I, sitting like old friends and drinking tea together.
You'd nerved yourself up for a vulgar row. I know---- Well, since you
won't tell me how many lumps, I'll give you two."

As he bent forward to receive the cup, their hands touched. The contact
was electric. A rush of excited vitality seemed to pour into his body
from hers. The touch was only for a second, but it left him startled and