ach soliciting the other's favor; a man and a woman
sitting close together, the couple, the factorial two--everywhere, all
round the circle, along the three visible rows of stalls, and again in
the private boxes. Those wealthy men in the boxes were unquestionably
accompanied by their mistresses and not by their wives or sisters.
Through the vibrating music and the super-heated atmosphere, on a
river of vivid light, they were all drifting fast toward the night of
love that each pair had arranged for itself.

And they too would have their night of love. He looked at his wife,
and felt his pulses stirred as much now as in the far-off days of
courtship--more, because then there was no experience of facts to
strengthen his imagination. He gently pressed her arm, and thrilled
at the mere contact. She was leaning back, fanning herself with her
program, and he observed the roundness and whiteness of her neck, the
flesh of her shoulder showing through the transparent sleeve of her
blouse, the moistness and warmth of her open lips.

Yet she had told him at Rodchurch Road Station that she was attractive
only to his eyes, and that she could never again arouse desire in
other men. What utter nonsense! She was simply adorable.

VII

They took a cab to drive back in, and he almost carried her up to
their bedroom. It was on the same floor as the other room, with the
same marvelous bird's-eye view of the starlit sky and the lamplit
town. He had got her to himself at last--here, high above the world,
half-way to heaven. There seemed to him something poetical, almost
sublime in their situation: they two alone, isolated, millions of
people surrounding them and no living creature able to interfere with
them.

As he knew, they were the only lodgers on this top floor; and so one
need not even trouble to avoid making a noise. He gave full voice to
his exultation.

"There, old lady." He had opened the window as wide as it would go,
and he told her to look out. "The air--what there is of it--will do
you good."

"Oh, I couldn't," and she recoiled.

"Giddy?"

"_Giddy_ isn't the word. Oh, Will, why did you let me drink that
stuff--after drinking the wine?"

"I thought you'd got a better head-piece. Look at _me_. I could 'a'
stood two or three more goes at it, and bin none the worse." And he
chaffed her merrily. "Here's a tale--if it ever leaks out Rodchurch
way. Have you heard how Mrs. Dale behaved up in London? Went to the
t