"Starved, no. I had soup at my boarding-house for lunch again to-day--soup with carrots in it. Hungry--I don't know. This is a big world we're in and I've never had the chance even to look over the horizon yet. Hungry? I've been hungry for--Elice for years, and I don't dare--Hunger is awfully near to starvation sometimes, friend Harry." Harry Randall squirmed. He saw it coming--it! "Oh, things will come all right if you'll be patient," he said--and halted himself for the trite optimism. "Elice won't; for she's gone already while I've been patient--gone and left me hungry." "Nonsense. Rot, plain rot!" "No, reality, plain reality. She probably wouldn't admit it yet, not even to herself, maybe doesn't know it yet herself; but I know. It's been coming on a long time. I see it all now." Randall made a wry face. That was all. "Yes, it's true, Harry, God's truth. I asked you a peculiar question a while ago,--asked whether I ought to marry. I didn't mean it; I was just maudlin. I know without asking that I mustn't. Even if Elice would consent--and I think she would consent yet, she's game--I mustn't. I'm waking up more all the time." "Steve, you're maddening--impossible. I tell you, Elice will never change. You know it without my telling you." "Yes, I know. It's I who have changed." He remembered suddenly. "Yes; it's I who have changed," he repeated slowly. "Well, you'll change back again then." The effort to be severe and commonplace was becoming cumulatively difficult. "You must." "Must change back--and marry Elice?" "Yes," desperately. "No, not if by a miracle I could change back." "Why? For heaven's sake, why? Don't be a fool, man." "Why?" without heat. "Do you really wish to know why?" "Yes." Armstrong deliberated. "You yourself are one reason, friend Harry." "I--I don't understand." "Yes, you do. I'm not without observation. You yourself wouldn't advise me to marry now." "Steve!" "You wouldn't, and you know you wouldn't. No offence. We're simply looking things squarely in the eye. It's merely the tragedy of pennies among evolved humans who require dollars to live--and must live. Am I not right, friend of mine?" No severity this time, no commonplace--nothing. "I repeat, no offence; just square in the eye. Am I not right?" "Right? I don't know. I can't answer." A sudden blaze. "You have no right to suggest--" "No. Pardon me." Armstrong's face worked in spite of himself. "Forget that I did suggest, Harry. It was brutal of me." Randall said nothing. "But with Elice and myself it's different. I've awakened in time. Providence, perhaps, sometimes when we least expect it--" "Steve!" Randall had glanced up quickly, self for the moment in abeyance. "What do you intend doing, tell me that?"