And I’m very seldom good, I’ll----” She broke off and glanced over at him, making her mouth sad. “You do sit far away.” When he made no motion to accept her invitation, she smiled the unreserved smile of friendship. “Look here, if I come half way over, will you?” She made the journey and waited for him to follow her example. He came reluctantly, but not all the way; there was still a gap between them. “Well, if you won’t, I’ll have to be forward.” She closed up the distance. “There! Isn’t that happier?” “Yes. But what’s the good? We’re in the middle of streets and nearly there now.” “I was tired,” she said appealingly. “I thought you’d understand.” It was impossible to resist her. Perhaps she had been tired. Perhaps she had done with him what she would have dared to do with no other man; and what he had mistaken for indifference and distrust had been a reliance on his chivalry. “I do understand.” “I wonder.” Ahead, across the misty greenness of the Park, the troglodyte dwellings of the West Side barricaded the horizon. In some of the windows lights were springing up. It was as though lonely people flashed unnoticed signals to the cold hearts beating in the heavens. “Desire, why do we try to hurt each other?” “Do we? I wasn’t trying. I was thinking of something that Fluffy told Horace. She said that men never married the women who said ‘Yes.’ It’s the women who say ‘No’ sweetly that men marry.” “So you were saying ‘No’ sweetly by keeping quiet.” “I was looking back to find out if it was true.” “And is it?” She gazed down demurely at her folded hands. “I once knew a girl; she didn’t care a straw for her man. He waited for her for five years always hoping, and she made all kinds of cruel jokes about him. Then one night--she didn’t know how it happened--all the ice broke and she felt that she wanted him most awfully. They were alone. Suddenly, without warning and without being asked, she kissed him and put her arms about his neck---- Can you guess what he did? You’re a man. You ought to know.” “He kissed her back again, I suppose, and after that they were married.” “Wrong. He picked up his hat and walked out of the house. He’d made her want him ten times worse than he’d ever wanted her. He never went back.” “But why? I don’t understand.” They were on Riverside Drive. The taxi was halting. She leant forward and opened the door. “He’d won, don’t you see? Because she’d given in he despised her. It was the holding off that made her value.” “A parable?” As she jumped out, she glanced roguishly across her shoulder. “No. A fact.” To save time, since they both had to dress, they arranged to meet at the theatre. The curtain had gone down on the first act when they entered.