'Perhaps not.'

She had become almost demure. Harvey took his eyes away.

'It comes to this -- you're not to subordinate your life to mine. That's
the old idea, and it still works well with some people. Yet I don't
know; perhaps it doesn't, really; one knows little enough about people's
lives. At all events, it won't work in our case, and remember that we
never thought it would. We talked it all over, with no humbug on either
side -- rather an unusual sort of talk, when one comes to think of it. I
liked you for the common-sense you showed, and I remember patting myself
on the back for a rational bit of behaviour at a time when I felt rather
crazy.'

Alma laughed in her gayest key.

'You were delicious. I didn't quite know what to make of you. And
perhaps that was the very reason ----'

'Reason for what?' asked Harvey, when she broke off and looked not quite
so pale as a moment before.

'I forget what I was going to say. But please go on. It's very
interesting -- as your talk always is.'

'I've said about all. You're not to be dutiful and commonplace; that's
the matter in a nutshell.'

'I don't think you can accuse me of ever being commonplace.'