“You yourself have taught me the use of irony,” she said noticing my astonishment. “Really aren’t you a little ridiculous, dear?” she added, passing her fingers through my hair. “Since marriage no longer exists, what has the Dutch Reformed Church to do with us?” I put her hand firmly from me with as much dignity as I could muster and suddenly inspired, said: “It means that I keep my standards as you keep yours. When I take my mate it shall be for life. If you love me as your attitude implies--” “Love you! Yes, for the first time,” she cried breathlessly. “Stop!” I said, as a maiden might have interposed. “I ask no confession, but understand this, Acquilla: no matter how dazzling your position, I refuse to be yours for a day or month. Your past is not my affair, but in the future there must be no other man. Your free companion for life--never your plaything for an hour!” And as she stood staring at me absolutely dumfounded, I added in the best dramatic manner: “All or nothing!” With which I escaped for fear of spoiling my climax by an uncontrollable gasp of laughter. I went to my room and stifled my hysterical laughter as best I could. But all at once a thought sobered me. Suppose, blinded by passion, she should agree? Here was a predicament. I rose and went to the door to lock it. But of course, in these modern days, bars and bolts did not exist. At last in despair--for what was I in strength compared with this amazing Amazon--I drew my bed across the door and lay down. Twice before I fell off to sleep, I heard her footsteps hesitating outside, and once--though it might have been my imagination--I thought someone pressed softly on the door. CHAPTER XIII When I saw Acquilla the next morning, I was shocked by the restlessness and fatigue in her eyes. “How did you sleep?” I asked maliciously. “Badly,” she snapped back, and until the end of breakfast not another word did she volunteer. However, she continued to stare at me with such a look of frustrated perplexity that if I had not been secretly delighted with the success of my artifice, I should have been embarrassed. As it was, I had trouble in concealing my elation, for my thoughts were racing. If only a spark of the eternal feminine still slumbered in Acquilla! What a day it would be for the cause! At the end of breakfast, she said abruptly: “Did you mean what you said last night?” “All or nothing,” I repeated in a way to have excited the admiration of the empress who had invented the phrase. Acquilla sprang up nervously and went inside. She was away for over an hour and I was wondering if she meant to sulk through the day when she returned, gentleness itself. “Explain to me about the Dutch Reformed Church,” she said anxiously, taking my hand in both of hers and looking earnestly in my eyes. I was in the midst of a fervid eulogy on that bulwark of my ancestors, when an aeromat poised above us and began to descend. I stopped with an involuntary wavering of my voice.