quite deserve it, Dal. You
ought to have let me know about Jane, weeks ago. Anyway, it will stop
the talk about you and me. And as for you, dear, you will go on sighing
for the moon; and when you find the moon is unattainable, you will not
dream of seeking solace in more earthly lights--not even poppa's best
sperm," she added, with a wistful little smile, for Pauline's fun
sparkled in solitude as freely as in company, and as often at her own
expense as at that of other people, and her brave American spirit would
not admit, even to herself, a serious hurt.

Meanwhile Jane had turned to the left and passed slowly to her room.
Garth had not taken her half-proffered hand, and she knew perfectly
well why. He would never again be content to clasp her hand in
friendship. If she cut him off from the touch which meant absolute
possession, she cut herself off from the contact of simple comradeship.
Garth, to-night, was like a royal tiger who had tasted blood. It seemed
a queer simile, as she thought of him in his conventional evening
clothes, correct in every line, well-groomed, smart almost to a fault.
But out on the terrace with him she had realised, for the first time,
the primal elements which go to the making of a man--a forceful
determined, ruling man--creation's king. They echo of primeval forests.
The roar of the lion is in them, the fierceness of the tiger; the
instinct of dominant possession, which says: "Mine to have and hold, to
fight for and enjoy; and I slay all comers!" She had felt it, and her
own brave soul had understood it and responded to it, unafraid; and
been ready to mate with it, if only--ah! if only--

But things could never be again as they had been before. If she meant
to starve her tiger, steel bars must be between them for evermore. None
of those sentimental suggestions of attempts to be a sort of
unsatisfactory cross between sister and friend would do for the man
whose head she had unconsciously held against her breast. Jane knew
this. He had kept himself magnificently in hand after she put him from
her, but she knew he was only giving her breathing space. He still
considered her his own, and his very certainty of the near future had
given him that gentle patience in the present. But even now, while her
answer pended, he would not take her hand in friendship. Jane closed
her door and locked it. She must face this problem of the future, with
all else locked out excepting herself and him. Ah! if she c