"Sweetheart, let us call it a day. I want to drive you out to Tarrytown to--" "Don't," she said, frowning. "Don't what?" Her immobility an ineffectual stop to his exuberance. "Come now," wanting to draw her from her chair by the two hands, swinging them wide and then together; "don't let his nibs bouncing in that way throw a damper. We were too quick for him, anyway. Don't believe he saw a thing. And what if he did? He's going to know it anyhow, and pretty quick, too. I want to shout it from the housetops, I want to megaphone it up to the stars. Lilly--Lilly-mine! Sweetheart!" She crowded back into the chair. "How dared you!" He fell back with his gesture still wide. "Why--what? Dared what? Oh, come now, sweetheart, I could wager he didn't see, and suppose he did? We've nothing to conceal. I'm for telling him to-day!" "No. No. No. You played unfair. You took me--unawares. You misunderstood me horribly--most horribly." "You mean--" "Why, you--you _boy!_ What has happened cannot make any difference between you and me. It was outrageous of you--silly _boy_ you--to--to take advantage. After all that has passed--all these years--it is unthinkable that you didn't understand. Why, you--you _boy!_" She saw his jaw fall and the sense of his ridiculousness set in. "What has merely been absurd all along you have suddenly made intolerant. You make more imperative my resignation. You must understand--Mr. Visigoth--under what conditions I will consent to remain here these few weeks." The words were so stilted that she had the sensation of throwing metal disks on a stone floor and waiting for their tinny clatter. She could see the high red drain out of his face and then rush up again as if he had been slapped. "Lilly, for God's sake, you--you cannot be serious!" "No mock heroics--please." His ears tipped with flame; he straightened back from her. "No more mock heroics," he said, in a voice suddenly quieted down like vichy gone stale. "Forgive an old--fool--a young--fool--and forget it. Thank you for jerking me up." He raised her limp hand, bowing over it until his lips hovered but did not touch. "My solemn word on it this time--no more--mock--heroics." And still Lilly, on the click of the door after him, could not clear her brain of the running threnody of nonsense: People's Playhouse. Tulsa, Oklahoma. People's Playhouse. Tulsa, Oklahoma. CHAPTER XII