He heard the challenge in her tone, delicately though she presented it,
and something in him that was fierce and unrestrained sprang up to meet
it. But he forced it back. His expression remained wholly inscrutable.

"I don't think I can claim to be anything else," he said. "But that fact
scarcely makes me in any sense one of a community. I think I prefer to
stand alone."

Her blue eyes sparkled a little. "Strangely, I have the same
preference," she said. "It has never appealed to me to be one of a
crowd. I like independence--whatever the crowd may say. But I am quite
aware that in a woman that is considered a dangerous taste. A woman
should always conform to rule."

"I have never studied the subject," said Monck.

He spoke briefly. Tommy's confidences had stirred within him that which
could not be expressed. The whole soul of him shrank with an almost
angry repugnance from discussing the matter with her. No discussion
could make any difference at this stage.

Again for a second he saw her slight frown. Then she leaned back in her
chair, stretching up her arms as if weary of the matter. "In fact you
avoid all things feminine," she said. "How discreet of you!"

A large white moth floated suddenly in and began to beat itself against
the lamp-shade. Monck's eyes watched it with a grim concentration.
Stella's were half-closed. She seemed to have dismissed him from her
mind as an unimportant detail. The silence widened between them.