His relief from his feeling of horror and remorse was naturally great, but he made up his mind that it was quite hopeless to expect Lola's forgiveness, and when he met her one day on Broadway, shortly after her recovery, he was about to pass her without any other greeting than a bow, when to his great surprise she stopped him and, without any reference either to the accident or to his deceit about his marriage, chatted with him so gayly and so pleasantly that he took heart and invited her to drop into a restaurant with him for a cup of tea. From her manner, as she entered the great room filled with laughing, chattering, well-dressed men and women, he could hardly be blamed for not knowing that this was the first time in all her life that she had ever been in such a place. Neither her father nor John Dorris were rich men; they knew nothing of the life that is reflected in such place; to John a few visits with her, to the theatre, long walks in the Park, or quiet evenings in the apartment won the natural development of their intimacy, and Dr. Barnhelm knew as little as he cared, which was not at all, about the sham glitter and forced gayety of the great eating places that have done so much to destroy the home life of the average New Yorker. In these surroundings, in an atmosphere of false luxury, of noise, heat, and confusion, against a background of painted women and flushed and loud-voiced men, the real reverence he had always had for her began rapidly to disappear, and he found himself looking upon her simply as a charming and beautiful young girl, who, as a matter of course, was to be pursued as diligently and as relentlessly as circumstances would allow. After all, the respect the world has for us is usually the measure of our own respect for ourselves, and as Lola made no effort to rebuke his rather daring advances, they naturally increased in freedom until in all the great room there was no gayer table than theirs. Many heads were turned toward them, many questions were asked about who this new beauty could be. Fenway seemed to be known to almost everyone, and several times men came up to the table and spoke to him, but if they had hoped to be introduced to his companion they were disappointed, and they went away muttering angrily. Lola would drink nothing but tea; in fact she needed nothing stronger; the intoxication of the scenes is as complete sometimes as the intoxication of strong drink, and to this girl, seeing for the first time a glimpse of the thing that to her seemed life, came the birth of a desire that never again left her, the desire to know everything, to experience everything, to live as those persons about her seemed to be living, without thought of anything but the pleasure of the moment, and had she known the price that all who live that life must surely pay, she would still have gone on.