"I’ll have to disprove that. Let’s spend the rest of the afternoon out of doors and get acquainted! Then when I have a good chance I’ll ask if you’ll be my wife. Do you realize how little we know of one another? It’s ridiculous. Why, you may have a middle name for all I know! You may eat sugar on canteloupe or vinegar on your oysters; you may be an extraordinary mimic; you may have escaped sudden death; you may have been engaged when you were seventeen; you may sulk; you may mispronounce my favorite words! How do I know but you like magenta and Germans and canary birds, and wear Jaegers; and object to profanity and nicknames, and say ’well-read’ and read the _Philistine_!" "Good Lord, deliver us! That’s a devil’s liturgy!" In denial of his categories she held him out her palm. "Oh, you should know me by that right hand! You’re supposed to be a trained observer of symptoms and stigmata. _You’re_ the one who needs investigation! Do you realize what a risk I am running? Why, I haven’t yet heard you speak to a dog, or answer a beggar, or seen you eat a banana, or watch a vaudeville show—and all four are necessary before I really know you." She bent her head in mock humility and looked up at him from beneath her golden lashes. "You needn’t be afraid, Francis; if you tell me what your rules are, I’ll obey them. If you _really_ want me to wear magenta, I shall be terribly fond of it, and I shall only think I’ve been stupid all my life to loathe it, and be so glad to learn. But I hope you don’t!" "If you’ll allow me five cents for dessert," he said as seriously, "I’ll order bananas, at the risk of losing you for ever." They had begun now to revel in the piquancy of the situation. Their meetings had, up to this time, seemed fatal in their dramatic sequence, fraught with meaning, working steadily up to the climax in the studio. There had been few scenes between them, but those scenes had been cumulative in feeling. They had played their parts like actors in a play of destiny, a play whose plot had been closely knit and esthetically economical in incident and dialogue, each act developing logically the previous situation. Now that the tension was released, and the reaction had come after an histrionic catastrophe, each looked at the other with new eyes, seeking the living person under the tragic mask.