ut misunderstood young matron found him what in
romance is known as an "enigma."

So he protested with smiling humility that he was quite transparent; she
insisted on doubting him and contrived to look disturbed in her mind
concerning the probable darkness of that past so dear to any young man
who has had none.

As for Alixe, she also was mildly flattered--a trifle disdainfully
perhaps, but still genuinely pleased at the honesty of this crude
devotion. She was touched, too; and, besides, she trusted him; for he
was clearly as transparent as the spring air. Also most women lugged a
boy about with them; she had had several, but none as nice as Gerald. To
tie him up and tack his license on was therefore natural to her; and if
she hesitated to conclude his subjection in short order it was that, far
in a corner of her restless soul, there hid an ever-latent fear of
Selwyn; of his opinions concerning her fitness to act mentor to the boy
of whom he was fond, and whose devotion to him was unquestioned.

Yet now, in spite of that--perhaps even partly because of it, she
decided on the summary taming of Gerald; so she let her hand fall, by
accident, close to his on the cushioned seat, to see what he'd do about
it.

It took him some time to make up his mind; but when he did he held it so
gingerly, so respectfully, that she was obliged to look out of the
window. Clearly he was quite the safest and nicest of all the unfledged
she had ever possessed.

"Please, don't," she said sadly.

And by that token she took him for her own.

* * * * *

She was very light-hearted that evening when she dropped him at the
Stuyvesant Club and whizzed away to her own house, for he had promised
not to play again on her premises, and she had promised to be nice to
him and take him about when she was shy of an escort. She also repeated
that he was truly an "enigma" and that she was beginning to be a little
afraid of him, which was an economical way of making him very proud and
happy. Being his first case of beauty in distress, and his first
harmless love-affair with a married woman, he looked about him as he
entered the club and felt truly that he had already outgrown the young
and callow innocents who haunted it.

* * * * *

On her way home Alixe smilingly reviewed the episode until doubt of
Selwyn's approval crept in again; and her amused smile had faded when
she reached her home