“I don’t know what I expected, but from the way people talk about it and write about it you would certainly think it was something wonderful—love and passion and bliss and all that, I mean. I feel that I’ve either been lied to or cheated … of course,” she added with a little side glance at him, “I didn’t exactly love my husband.…” She blushed and looked down again; then laughed softly and rather joyfully for a lady with a broken heart. “If mother could only hear me now!” she observed.… “She’d faint. I don’t care.… That’s just the way I feel.… I don’t care! All my life I’ve been trained and groomed and prepared for the grand and glorious event of marriage. I’ve been taught it’s the most wonderful thing that can happen to anyone. That’s what all the books say, and all the people I know. And here it turns out to be a most uncomfortable bore.…” He looked gravely sympathetic. “Do you think it would have been different with—someone you did love?” he enquired cautiously. She gave him another quick thrilling glance. “I don’t know,” she said.… “Maybe … I felt so different about you.” Their hands met on the settee and they both moved instinctively a little closer together. Suddenly she jerked away from him, looking him in the eyes with her head thrown back and a smile of irony on her lips. “Aren’t we a couple of idiots?” she demanded. “No!” he declared with fierce emphasis, and throwing an arm about her, pounced on her lips. Just then a bell boy passed the door. They jerked apart and upright very self-consciously. Then they looked at each other and laughed. But their eyes quickly became deep and serious again, and their fingers entangled. She sighed in mock exasperation. “For Heaven’s sake, say something!” she demanded. “We can’t sit here and make eyes at each other all evening. Besides I’m compromising my priceless reputation. It’s after ten o’clock. I’ve got to go.” She rose, and held out her hand, which he took without saying anything. “Good night,” she said. “I think you were mean to come and camp on me this way … dumb as ever, I see … well, good night.” She went to the door, stopped and looked back, smiled and disappeared. Ramon went down to the lobby and roamed all over the two floors which constituted the public part of the hotel. He looked at everything and smoked a great many cigarettes, thus restlessly whiling away an hour. Then he went to a writing room. He collected some telegrams and letters about him and appeared to be very busy. When a bell boy went by, he rapped sharply on the desk with a fifty-cent piece, and as the boy stopped, tossed it to him. “Get me the key to 207!” he ordered sharply; then turned back to his imaginary business. “Yes sir,” said the boy. He returned in a few minutes with the key. Ramon sat for a long moment looking at it, tremulous with a great anticipation. He was divided between a conviction that she expected him and a fear that she did not.… His fear proved groundless.