"Oh, the arch hypocrisy! Liars, both of you--abject liars--trying to make excuses for your own foul treachery! It's sickening! I shan't stay another night--no, not another hour--beneath her roof." "It is Tony's roof, and you had better remain." "I won't, I won't! How can you even suggest such a thing? I can't breathe the same air that she does. It's poisonous--contaminated!" "Gently, gently; you'll be overheard." "Rubbish! I don't care! I won't be gentle. What do you mean by defending her? What is she to you?" And the verbal refusal to be gentle was confirmed by a violent blow on the table. Morris, albeit decidedly surprised, answered with unruffled suavity. He was quite willing to make allowances for this natural anger and show of indignation; at the same time the wondrous patience the girl had exhibited hitherto had given him little cause to anticipate the tempestuous quality of her aroused wrath. "Is your philosophy all culled from antique authors, sweet student? Have you never found time to peep into Darwin and assimilate the doctrine of the Survival of the Fittest?" "What's that to do----?" she cried in bewilderment, not seeing at first any connection between her question and this answer. Yet even as she spoke came a sudden mental illumination of his meaning. "Morris, you can't mean to say you really do prefer that vulgar, coarse-minded, spiteful, abandoned creature to--to----Oh Heaven!" She brushed her hair roughly back from her forehead, and stared at him fixedly, her big eyes still full of incredulity. Then she uttered a brief laugh of mingled bitterness and disdain. "But there! From a man's point of view, I suppose the Fittest always and only implies the Newest. Despicable wretches, the whole lot of you." Morris, amused at this sweeping statement, smiled as he answered-- "But it's a little weakness that is no ways confined to mere man. It isn't only to us that constancy spells boredom. It's all very well for middle-aged women, who feel their power of pleasing on the wane, to cling like limpets. We expect it, and it's one reason why wise men avoid 'em. It always means beastly rows in the long run. But, thank goodness, at your time of life, my child, variety is charming, even to the fair sex." The latter portion of these sentiments fell unheeded--practically unheard. All the girl's thoughts and senses were concentrated upon her own agony of spirit. Fully grasping now, for the very first time, that Morris's defection was serious and deliberate, all indignation and resentment were swamped by a wave of wild grief and horror before which all else broke down. When she could speak it was only in disjointed sentences, in a voice that quivered under stress of emotion and struggled with choking sobs.