in is asleep now, but it is a very active and insistent part when
awake. In time you might revert--and resentment is a fatal canker; but
let's leave it open. It is generally a mistake to settle things
off-hand. Let them alone and they settle themselves."

"Very well. At all events, while we are here, I shall not give it
another thought. The present at least is perfect."

"Yes, it is perfect!" He put both arms about her. The past was a blank
to both. Their pulsing lips met in the wonder and the ecstasy of the
first kiss of youth, of profound and perfect and imperishable love. They
clung together exalted and exulting and for the moment at least they were
one.

LI

They ate their dinner under the amused eyes of Mrs. Larsing, who had
served dinners a deux before to couples that had "lost their way."
Afterward they sat by the fire and talked desultorily: a great deal
about themselves; sometimes wandering to the subjects that had
interested them most before they had met each other. Clavering told
her of the many plays he had written, and burned; because in his
inordinate respect for the drama he had found them, when not wholly
bad, too good to be good enough. But the long practice had given him a
certain mastery of technique, and when she had set his brain on fire he
had had less trouble than most young playwrights in compelling his
imagination to adapt itself to the inexorable framework. He had always
felt that the imagination, what is called, for want of a better term,
the "creative faculty," was there, but it was lethargic; it sometimes
roused itself to spurts and flashes during wakeful nights, but slept
like a boa-constrictor that had swallowed a pig when he tried to invoke
it. No doubt, as Gora had told him, his life had been too easy and
agreeable; he made a good deal of money with no particular effort, he
was a favorite with the cleverest men and women in New York, and he had
no one to think of but himself. His mother was dead and his sisters
married. And there was no doubt that if you were on top, a
personality, New York was the most enchanting place in the world to
live in, just as it must be the most unsatisfactory for the poor and
insignificant. To have conquered New York meant more--several thousand
times more--than conquering all the rest of the United States put
together, with New York left out. Moreover, it was the only place
where you could have any real fun, if you wanted your fun w