"I shouldn't place the guilt entirely upon her shoulders!" laughed Mme. Petrovskey with a kittenish air. "I have often feared that Dr. Elliott in his kindness of heart, must be neglecting his work. I assure you he and Claire have been inseparable all winter." Dr. Elliott glared. "I'm afraid you are exaggerating. But Mrs. Petrovskey's occasional company has proved a great boon to a lonely chap like myself." "Occasional!" exclaimed Mme. Petrovskey. "I should hardly call it that, dear Dr. Elliott!" "It has seemed so to me." "Ah, the young are so impetuous!" She raised innocent eyes to the ceiling. "They are never contented with less than all." "You choose to be playful," said the doctor, with a guarded little smile. Alexis admired the man's restraint. He, himself, fidgeted uneasily. Did his mother have no decency at all? "Aren't we getting rather serious?" he demanded. What a ghastly scene! Why couldn't the fellow go home? Perhaps he was in love with Claire, after all? "It's a serious subject." Mme. Petrovskey was still sprightly. "Repressed desires are almost as serious as unrepressed." The doctor laughed. "Ah, now you are getting on familiar ground. When it comes to Freud, or his fellow Paul Prys," his eye gleamed dangerously, "I can argue with the best of you." Mme. Petrovskey nodded gayly. "Do you follow the new method of free expression?" "I believe that one's desires, if decent, should be gratified." He fixed his eyes upon Claire's face with an expression at once baffling and affectionate. Mme. Petrovskey bridled. "There are so many standards of decency, aren't there? And that of a young doctor might be considered lax by an old fogy like myself." Alexis shot her a tortured glance. "Since when have you become so interested in Psycho-Analysis? This is getting too high-brow for Claire and me, isn't it, Claire?" She met his harried gaze with an apologetic smile at once pleading and listless. "I'm afraid I wasn't paying much attention." Mme. Petrovskey turned towards her punctiliously. Her eyes beneath the smile seemed to strip the girl to the bone, and Claire cowered away as from a limelight. "You had better listen, dear child. For the matter concerns you profoundly." "Concerns me?" she muttered inexplicably uneasy. "Yes, indeed," playfully. "We're talking about the doctor's repressed and unrepressed desires." "What have I to do with them?" Her voice was cold with dawning fear. "We are trying to discover in which of the two pigeon-holes you belong." "Ah!" Claire's pale lips parted on a cry. She half rose from her chair. Alexis sprang across the room to her side. "This is too much!" he exclaimed. "Why do you torture the child?" "Because Mme. Petrovskey wants me to confess that I love Claire!" Dr. Elliott's tones rang clear. They all looked at him in amazement. A calm exultation in his eyes, he faced them squarely. "Can you deny it?" A smile of triumph played about the older woman's mouth. "I can. But I will not!"