Braden's attention had been caught at last and held. "Wade married? Good Lord! Oh, I say, Simmy, you _can't_ expect me to believe—" "You'll see. He has shaken the dust of Thorpe house from his person and is gallivanting around in lavender perfumes and purple linen." "My God! That old hulk and—twenty years, did you say? Why, the damned old scoundrel! After all he has seen and—" His jaws closed suddenly with a snap, and his eyes narrowed into ugly slits. "Be careful, Brady, old top," said Simmy, shaking his head. "It won't do to call Wade names, you know. Just stop and think for a second or two." Thorpe relaxed with a gesture of despair. "You are right, Simmy. Why should I blame Wade?" He got up and began pacing the floor, his hands clenched behind his back. Simmy smoked in silence, apparently absorbed in watching the angry clouds that blackened the western sky. Presently Thorpe resumed his seat in the window. His eyes did not meet Simmy's as the latter turned toward him. He look straight out over the tops of the great apartment houses on the far side of the Park. "How long has she been living down there alone?" he asked again. "Five or six weeks." "When did you last see her?" "Yesterday. She's been dreadfully nervous ever since the blowing up of the _Lusitania_. I asked her to go to the pier with me. She refused. See here, Brady," said Simmy, rising suddenly and laying his hand on the other's shoulder, "what are you going to do about Anne?" "Nothing. Anne can never be anything to me, nor I to her," said Thorpe, white-faced and stern. His face was rigid. "Nonsense! You love her, don't you?" "Yes. That has nothing to do with it, however." "And she loves you. I suppose that hasn't anything to do with it, either. I suppose it is right and proper and natural that you both should go on loving each other to the end of time without realising the joys of—" "Don't try to argue the—" "It's right that you should let that glorious, perfect young creature wither and droop with time, grow old without—oh, Lordy, what a damn fool you are, Brady! There isn't the slightest reason in this world why you shouldn't get married and—" "Stop that, Simmy!"