"Run away," he repeated, also lowering his voice. "From whom?" "From Langly Sprowl." He shrugged and looked out of the window. "It _is_ running away," insisted his pretty hostess. "You have a chance I think." "Not the slightest." "You are wrong. Strelsa wept in her sleep all night. How does that strike you?" "Not over me," he said grimly; but added: "How do you know she did?" "Her maid told mine," admitted Molly shamelessly. "Now if you are going to criticise my channels of information I'll remind you that Richelieu himself----" "Oh, Molly! Molly! What a funny girl you are!" he said, laughing. "You're a sweet, loyal little thing, too--but there's no use--" His face became expressionless, almost haggard--"there's no use," he repeated under his breath. Slowly, side by side, they walked out to the veranda, her hand resting lightly just within the crook of his arm, he, absent-mindedly filling his pipe. "Strelsa likes you," she said. "With all the ardour and devotion of a fish," he returned, coolly. "Rix?" "What?" "Do you know," said Molly, thoughtfully, "she _is_ a sort of a fish. She has the emotions of a mollusc as far as your sex is concerned. Some women _are_ that way--more women than men would care to believe.... Do you know, Ricky, if you'll let us alone, it is quite natural for us to remain indifferent to considerations of that sort?" She stood watching the young fellow busy with his pipe. "It's only when you keep at us long enough that we respond," she said. "Some of us are quickly responsive; it takes many of us a long while to catch fire. Threatened emotion instinctively repels many of us--the more fastidious among us, the finer grained and more delicately nerved, are essentially reserved. Modesty, pride, a natural aloofness, are as much a part of many women as their noses and fingers----" "What becomes of modesty and pride when a girl marries for money?" he asked coolly. "Some women can give and accept in cold blood what it would be impossible for them to accord to a more intimate and emotional demand." "No doubt an ethical distinction," he said, "but not very clear to me." "I did not argue that such women are admirable or excusable.... But how many modern marriages in our particular vicinity are marriages of inclination, Ricky?" "You're a washed-out lot," he said--"you're satiated as schoolgirls. If you have any emotions left they're twisted ones by the time you are introduced. Most débutantes of your sort make their bow equipped for business, and with the experience of what, practically, has amounted to several seasons. "If any old-fashioned young girls remain in your orbit I don't know where to find them. Why, do you suppose any young girl, not yet out, would bother to go to a party of any sort where there was not champagne and a theatre-box and a supper in prospect? That's a fine comment on your children, Molly, but you know it's true and so does everybody who pretends to know anything about it."