and play we're disembodied spirits. Neither of us will ask the other a
personal question."

"Agreed, and thank you. It's not that I wouldn't be flattered, you
know, by your interest, and all that," he went on, awkwardly. "It's
only because it's such a beastly harrowing recital and shows me up in
such--such an inefficient light. It would depress you, and it couldn't
do me any good. The things about myself are what I want to get away
from--for a while."

They were soon at Delmonico's, and she followed him into the main
dining-room, where she selected a table at a window looking out on the
Avenue. The head waiter glanced at him, hesitated, surveyed her, and
showed that he was indeed a good servant who knew his own. He hovered
over them with deepening interest as they scanned the menu.

The boy smiled at his companion, trying not to notice the smell of the
food around them, nor the horrible sinking sensation which overwhelmed
him at intervals. A sickening fear swept over him that he would faint
before luncheon came--faint on a lady's hands, and from starvation at
that! He plunged into conversation with reckless vivacity.

When the waiter came with the oysters she set the example of eating
them at once. Her companion followed it in leisurely fashion. She told
herself that he was a thoroughbred, and that she had not been mistaken
in him, but she would almost have preferred to see him eat wolfishly.
His restraint got on her nerves. She could not eat, though she made a
pretence of it. When he had eaten his soup with the same careful
deliberation, a little color came into his face. She observed this,
and her tension relaxed.