The girl stretched herself out on the swinging couch, and the youth took his seat on a wicker chair close beside her. Mrs. Joyce kept at a decent distance, so that if the young people had anything private to say she might reasonably appear not to have overheard it. Talk was spasmodic, for neither of them could forget for a moment the duel which was surely going on in that inner room. Indeed, Mrs. Joyce openly spoke of it. "If Lucy is not too anxious, too eager, she will change Alexander's whole conception of the universe this night." "Of course you're exaggerating, Aunt Louise; but I certainly expect her to shake him up." "It only needs one genuine phenomenon to convince him of her sincerity. What a warrior for the cause he would make! She must stay right here in his house till she utterly overwhelms him. He took up her case at first merely because I asked him to do so; but he likes her, and is ready to take it up on her own account if he finds her sincere. But I want him to believe in the philosophy she represents." Half an hour passed with no sign from within, and Mrs. Joyce began to yawn. "That ride made me sleepy." "Why don't you go to bed?" suggested Leo. She professed concern. "And leave Lucy unguarded?" "Nonsense! Go to bed and sleep. Mr. Ollnee and I will stand guard till the ordeal is ended." "I believe I'll risk it," decided Mrs. Joyce. "I can hardly keep my eyes open." "Nor your mouth shut," laughed Leo. "Hasten, or you'll fall asleep on the stair." Left alone, the young people came nigh to forgetting that the world contained aught but dim stretches of moonlit greensward, dewy trees, and the odor of lilac blooms. In the dusk Victor stood less in fear of the girl, and she, moved by the witchery of the night and the melody of his voice (into which something new and masterful had come), grew less defiant. "How still it all is?" she breathed, softly. "It is like the Elysian Fields after the city's noise and grime." "It's more beautiful out there." He motioned toward the lawn. "Let's walk down the drive." And she complied without hesitation, a laugh in her voice. "But not too far. Remember, we are guardian angels." As she reached his side he took her arm and tucked it within his own. "You might get lost," he said, in jocular explanation of his action. "How considerate you are!" she scornfully responded, but her hand remained in his keeping. There were no problems now. Down through the soft dusk of the summer night they strolled, rapturously listening to the sounds that were hardly more than silences, feeling the touch of each other's garments, experiencing the magic thrill which leaps from maid to man and man to maid in times like these. "How big you are!" exclaimed the girl. "I didn't realize how much you overtopped me. I am considered tall." "And so you are--and divinely fair." "How banal! Couldn't you think of a newer one?"