got things a bit straighter since. In the first place, we have been
doing decent work all this last month. We've been doing, between us, the
work of two high-priced directors."

She said, "Yes, but I didn't know ..."

"Understanding's better than ignorance," he interrupted, "any time.
Between people of sense, that is. We'd get on better together, not
worse. Look at us now. We're talking together sensibly enough, aren't
we? And we're here in your sitting-room, talking about the fact that I
fell in love with you. Couldn't we talk just as sensibly in the theater,
about whether a song or number was in the right place or not? Of course
we could."

The truth of this argument rather stumped Rose. It didn't seem
reasonable, but it was true. Instead of embarrassing and distressing
her, this talk with Galbraith was doing her good, restoring her
confidence. The air between them was easier to breathe than it had been
for weeks.

"You seem different this morning, somehow," she said.

"Why," he told her, "I am different. Permanently different toward you. I
am convinced of it. I don't pretend to understand it myself, but
somehow--I'm relieved. For one thing, I never wanted to fall in love
with you. It was quite against my will that I did it. And then I've
always been tortured with curiosity about you. I've wondered. Were you
as unconscious of me as you seemed? Was it possible that you didn't
know. And if you did know, was it possible that you were--waiting? That
it only needed a word of mine to put everything between us on a
different basis? I couldn't get rid of that idea. It kept nagging at me.
But after what you told me last night--and you certainly told it
straight--that idea's exploded. What you said explains everything about
you. I know now that I haven't a chance in the world. From now on, I
imagine, I'll be able to treat you like a human being. Well, are you
willing to try it?"

Up to now they'd been sitting quietly in their two chairs with most of
the width of the room between them. But at this last question of his she
got up and walked over to the window.

"I don't know," she said at last. "It seems dangerous, somehow; like
courting trouble. I know ..." She hesitated, but then decided to say
what was in her mind. "I know how terribly strong those feelings are and
I've found out how little they've got to do with what it's so easy to
decide is reasonable." Now she turned and faced him.

"Don't you think it would be