He said this to himself, and then hotly denied it. She was not bad. In his heart he knew she was not bad, and he knew as well that he had never approached a soul which was as clean, as unselfish, as purely tender as hers.... Maude Knox was good, too, capable of unselfishness and fine tenderness. But she could never accomplish what Andree had accomplished. She could never do as Andree did and retain her purity.... He did not realize that this was because Maude herself would have believed herself to have lost her purity. For Kendall the matter marched back to the attitude he had absorbed from his mother—that relations between the sexes were wicked in themselves and could never be anything else, but that by some miraculous quality belonging to a formula pronounced by a parson it became permissible for designated couples to practise wickedness without fear of punishment. The wickedness remained, but the formula remitted the punishment. That was his mother’s belief.... She had been bitterly ashamed when Kendall became evident, because he was testimony to the world that she had been guilty.... Ken realized that he was getting himself into a state of mind, that he was reviving those disturbing thoughts which had such power to make him miserable ... and he had been very happy with Andree. He had loved his happiness, and now he wanted it to persist. It had been something new in his life, very precious, very wonderful ... and he was not willing that it should be dimmed. He stepped behind the girls and spoke. Andree turned and smiled. “You shall go away,” she said. “We do not need you. You shall watch the parade while Miss Knox and myself make thees ver’ interesting talk. Yes?” “What are you and Miss Knox talking about?” “What should we be talking about?” asked Maude. “About ourselves, of course.” “It is ver’ nice subjec’,” said Andree, with an impish twinkle. “Let me come in. Talk about me, and I’ll listen.” “_Pouf!..._ You! If we talk about you, then you are ver’ angry.” “Why?” “Bicause we shall say the truth, and men want only to be praised. _N’est-ce pas?..._ Oh, all men are greedy for praise. _Oh, là là là là._” “There, Captain Ware. Will you behave now?” Ken laughed. “Andree is always very disagreeable. I don’t see how I endure her.” She nodded. “Yes. I am mos’ disagree-able.” She accented the last syllable quaintly. “It is bicause I do not like you.” “Mademoiselle is very much interested in America,” said Maude. “And _Monsieur le capitaine_ he tell me so ver’ leetle.” “America is a large country. It has a hundred million of population. The Woolworth Building is sixty stories high. Everybody owns an automobile and goes to the movies. Baseball is the national game....”