"Pshaw! It's no bread-and-butter miss who'll set your veins on fire." And then, the man having a kink in his nature which made him peculiarly evil, he added: "It's quite a safe game, though. There are no interfering male relations. The mother is the widow of a wool-merchant. They're not well off; and she'd welcome a wealthy son-in-law. Incidentally, there is no reason why a man shouldn't amuse himself." "I will make the mother's acquaintance to-night," Lawless answered, and struck a match and lighted himself a cigarette. Van Bleit was sucking cachous for the sweetening of his breath. The smell of musk irritated Lawless' nostrils. "It takes some living up to," he observed drily. "What does?" "Being enamoured of a goddess." "Oh?" Van Bleit laughed sheepishly. "In these days, when most women smoke themselves, I should consider such precaution unnecessary." "Women appreciate it," Van Bleit responded. "It's a tribute of masculine homage." "One of those tributes," Lawless answered, "that cost so little either in the way of self-sacrifice or money that men don't mind offering them. But love asks bigger things. That's where the majority of us jib. Love is over exacting; we quarrel with it on account of its demands... I suppose where a man's love was big enough to understand, it would be equal to removing mountains and draining the ocean... In lesser cases it contents itself with sucking sweets." "You are trying to make out that you know something about it, I suppose?" Van Bleit said, slightly nettled. Lawless laughed. "I should never attempt the moving of mountains," he replied. Mrs Lawless arrived during the extras that followed immediately upon the supper dance. The ball-room was empty, save for a few couples, mostly young enthusiasts who preferred to make the most of their opportunity when the floor was not so crowded, and to sup later when the refreshment-room too had thinned, and the faithful Van Bleit. He insisted upon taking her in to supper. She had come with the Smythes; and she turned to Mrs Smythe at the mention of supper and lifted protesting shoulders. "One cannot keep on eating," she said. "Karl can," Mrs Smythe responded. "I'm famished," he said. "I've been waiting until you arrived. In fairness to me you must come and see me through." Smythe pointed to the revolving couples. "We shan't get seats," he said; "they're crowded out, you see." "Oh! I'll find room. There isn't such a crush as all that." "Well, you can take the ladies. There's a limit to human endurance... a drink will satisfy me." "We shall have to go," Mrs Smythe said, slipping a gloved hand within Mrs Lawless' arm. "When I have determined people to deal with I never argue. It is so much less trouble to give in." Van Bleit conducted his party to the supper-room, and found seats for three at a table near the door. "What a pity Theo didn't come," Mrs Smythe remarked, with a glance at the vacant chair on her right.