On the way home, she resumed the discussion. In a more earnest tone than before, she thanked him for taking so much trouble over her and promised to think about his point of view very carefully. She insisted, however, that his reasoning had not convinced her. She and Claude appeared very well suited to each other now, but who could tell what changes a few years might not bring forth? "True," said Robert. "But the future is dark to us in other matters besides marriage. As things stand now, Claude couldn’t do better, and you might do worse. And if the very worst happened, you could get a divorce." She replied by reminding him that she and Claude were not the kind of people who lightly repudiated their ties or the responsibilities that grew out of them. Consequently, once married, they would probably remain so for life. In any event, if she changed her mind, it would be infinitely simpler to do so under the other plan. "Say I grew tired of Claude, for instance, and quite suddenly wanted you," she said with a mischievous look. "Well, it couldn’t be done," said Robert, decisively, her complacent assumption jarring his pride. "Oh, couldn’t it?" She flashed him a challenging glance. "Not in my case," he returned, in clipped tones. "Free love is the most expensive luxury in the world. Only the very rich or the unambitious can pay for it. As for me, I never can have anything to do either with free love or with a woman who has had a free lover. It would ruin all my plans." Janet replied with the faintest shrug, whereat all his self-assertion promptly went bang. Neither yielded a point; but they divined each other’s feelings and, as they walked on, steered the conversation into lighter channels until they got back to the Lorillard tenements. Standing in the dark hallway at the foot of the stairs, Janet told him with a touch of impishness that his logic had been irresistible. "Has it? It hasn’t touched your heart," he said, somewhat dolefully. "Ah, well, the heart is a free and a fetterless thing—" As Janet darted up the stairs, the door of an apartment opened overhead, and she fancied she heard Claude’s voice. *CHAPTER EIGHTEEN* *I* On her own floor, she halted and, with Robert’s kiss still burning on her lips, waited until he had turned into Kelly’s flat. Then she opened the door of Number Fifteen. Sure enough, Claude was there, full of resentment at her absence on a jaunt with Robert. She thanked her stars that Robert’s visible presence could not fan the flame. Even so, Claude acted badly enough. He was in a vertigo of jealousy, and at small pains to hide the fact.