"It would be better, wouldn't it?"

There was real earnestness in his voice when he spoke. He had dramatized
himself by that time.

"Don't take away the only thing that makes life worth living, dear!"

Which Natalie, after a proper hesitation, duly promised not to do.

There were other conversations after that. About marriage, for instance,
which Rodney broadly characterized as the failure of the world; he liked
treading on dangerous ground.

"When a man has married, and had children, he has fulfilled his duty
to the State. That's all marriage is--duty to the State. After that he
follows his normal instincts, of course."

"If you are defending unfaithfulness?"

"Not at all. I admire faithfulness. It's rare enough for admiration.
No. I'm recognizing facts. Don't you suppose even dear old Clay likes a
pretty woman? Of course he does. It's a total difference of view-point,
Natalie. What is an incident to a man is a crime to a woman."

Or:

"All this economic freedom of women is going to lead to other freedoms,
you know."

"What freedoms?"

"The right to live wherever they please. One liberty brings another,
you know. Women used to marry for a home, for some one to keep them. Now
they needn't, but--they have to live just the same."

"I wish you wouldn't, Rodney. It's so--cheap."

It was cheap. It was the old game of talking around conversational
corners, of whispering behind mental doors. It was insidious, dangerous,
and tantalizing. It made between them a bond of lowered voices, of being
on the edge of things. Their danger was as spurious as their passion,
but Natalie, without humor and without imagination, found the sense of
insecurity vaguely attractive.

Fundamentally cold, she liked the idea of playing with fire.

CHAPTER XXIV

When war was not immediately declared the rector, who on the Sunday
following that eventful Saturday of the President's speech to Congress
had preached a rousing call to arms, began to feel a bit sheepish about
it.

"War or no war, my dear," he said to Delight, "it made them think for as
much as an hour. And I can change it somewhat, and use it again, if the
time really comes."

"Second-hand stuff!" she scoffed. "You with your old sermons, and Mother
with my old dresses! But it was a good sermon," she added. "I have
hardly been civil to that German laundress since."

"Good gracious, Delight. Can't you remember that we must love our
enemies?"

"Do you love them? Y