“And in the next minute?”

“I hope to persuade you to stay till the third minute.”

“Of course, I can’t.”

“I know; it’s impossible.”

“Quite.”  She settled into the chair.  “See how people stare at me!  They remember poor Jack Landis and they think—­the whole crowd—­”

“A crowd is always foolish.  In the meantime, I’m happy.”

“You?”

“To be here; to sit close to you; to watch you.”

Her glance was like the tip of a rapier, searching him through for some iota of seriousness under this banter.

“Ah?” and Nelly Lebrun laughed.

“Don’t you see that I mean it?”

“You can watch me from a distance, Mr. Donnegan.”

“May I say a bold thing?”

“You have said several.”

“No one can really watch you from a distance.”

She canted her head a little to one side; such an encounter of personal quips was a seventh heaven to her.

“That’s a riddle, Mr. Donnegan.”

“A simple one.  The answer is, because there’s too much to watch.”

He joined her when she laughed, but the laughter of Donnegan made not a sound, and he broke in on her mirth suddenly.

“Ah, don’t you see I’m serious?”

Her glance flicked on either side, as though she feared someone might have read his lips.

“Not a soul can hear me,” murmured Donnegan, “and I’m going to be bolder still, and tell you the truth.”

“It’s the last thing I dare stay to hear.”

“You are too lovely to watch from a distance, Nelly Lebrun.”

He was so direct that even Nelly Lebrun, expert in flirtations, was given pause, and became sober.  She shook her head and raised a cautioning finger.  But Donnegan was not shaken.

“Because there is a glamour about a beautiful girl,” he said gravely.  “One has to step into the halo to see her, to know her.  Are you contented to look at a flower from a distance?  That’s an old comparison, isn’t it?  But there is something like a fragrance about you, Nelly Lebrun.  Don’t be afraid.  No one can hear; no one shall ever dream I’ve said such bold things to you.  In the meantime, we have a truth party.  There is a fragrance, I say.  It must be breathed.  There is a glow which must touch one.  As it touches me now, you see?”

Indeed, there was a faint color in his cheeks.  And the girl flushed more deeply; her eyes were still bright, but they no longer sharpened to such a penetrating point.  She was believing at least a little part of what he said, and her disbelief only heightened her joy in what was real in this strangest of lovemakings.

“I shall stay here to learn one thing,” she said.  “What deviltry is behind all this talk, Mr. Donnegan?”

“Is that fair to me?  Besides, I only follow a beaten trail in The Corner.”

“And that?”

“Toward Nelly Lebrun.”

“A beaten trail?  You?” she cried, with just a touch of anger.  “I’m not a child, Mr. Donnegan!”