n New York?" she asked
irresistibly.

"I--oh--well, what is romance? Of course, it is quite possible to fall
in love in New York--although anything but the ideal setting. But
romance!"

"Surely the sense of mystery between a man and woman irresistibly
attracted may be as provocative in a great city as in a feudal castle
surrounded by an ancient forest--or on one of my Dolomite lakes. Is it
not that which constitutes romance--the breathless trembling on the
verge of the unexplored--that isolates two human beings as
authentically--I am picking up your vocabulary--as if they were alone
on a star in space? Is it not possible to dream here in New York?--and
surely dreams play their part in romance." Her fingertips, moving
delicately on the surface of her lap, had a curious suggestion of
playing with fire.

"One needs leisure for dreams." He stood up suddenly and leaned
against the mantelpiece. The atmosphere had become electric. "A good
thing, too, as far as some of us are concerned. The last thing for a
columnist to indulge in is dreams. Fine hash he'd have for his readers
next morning!"

"Do you mean to say that none of you clever young men fall in love?"

"Every day in the week, some of them. They even marry--and tell
fatuous yarns about their babies. No doubt some of them have even
gloomed through brief periods of unreciprocated passion. But they
don't look very romantic to me."

"Romance is impossible without imagination, I should think. Aching for
what you cannot have or falling in love reciprocally with a charming
girl is hardly romance. That is a gift--like the spark that goes to
the making of Art."

"Are you romantic?" he asked harshly. "You look as if born to inspire
romance--dreams--like a beautiful statue or painting--but mysterious as
you make yourself--and, I believe, are in essence--I should never have
associated you with the romantic temperament. Your eyes--as they too
often are---- Oh, no!"

"It is true that I have never had a romance."

"You married--and very young."

"Oh, what is young love! The urge of the race. A blaze that ends in
babies or ashes. Romance!"

"You have--other men have loved you."

"European men--the type my lot was cast with--may be romantic in their
extreme youth--I have never been attracted by men in that stage of
development, so I may only suppose--but when a man has learned to
adjust passion to technique there is not much romance left in him."