His lover’s eye detected a wealth of cleverness in her correspondence. He sincerely believed that she was more gifted as a writer than himself. Her letters were full of descriptions of Fluffy in her part, thumb-nail sketches of the other members of the cast and accounts of the momentously personal adventures of a theatrical company on tour. She had a trick of humor that made her intimate in an adjective, and made him laugh. She also had a trick of allotting to him prejudices. “You’d call our leading man a very bad character, but I like him: I think one needs to have faults to be truly charitable. I’d ask you to join us, but---- You wouldn’t get on with theatrical people; you rather--I know, so you needn’t deny it--you rather despise them. I think they’re the jolliest crowd. We dance every night when the show is ended and have late suppers, and--you can guess.” It was after receiving this that he made up his mind, in preparation for her return, to learn the latest dances. He wondered where she could have gathered the impression that he was puritanical. But there were other letters in which she joined his future with hers. “Perhaps you’ll write a great play one day, and allow me to be your leading lady.” He paused to let the picture form before he went further. It would be rather fun. He saw himself holding hands with her and bowing to applauding audiences. As husband and wife they’d travel the world together, emancipated beings who never gave a thought to money, each contributing to the other’s triumph. Fun! Yes. But unsettling. The life that he had always planned was a kind of glorified Eden Row existence without the worries. He thought of Jimmie Boy and Dearie, and all the quiet bonds of dependence they had built up by living always in one place together. His eyes went back to her letter. “You’ll come and see me, won’t you, Meester Deek, if ever I become a great actress? And I shall.--Oh, did I tell you? Horace is on his way over. I wonder what he and Fluffy will do? Perhaps quarrel. Perhaps just dawdle.” He was tempted to go to her; but she hadn’t really invited him. He felt that she wouldn’t be his in her nomad setting. He couldn’t bear to have to share her with these butterfly people who viewed love as a diversion, and marriage as a catastrophe.