Chapter 42

“It’s your fearlessness that makes _you_ attractive.” “You _know_ I’m a coward!” “Oh. Then what is it makes you so attractive to—” “Any average girl is attractive to any idle young man,” she remarked with a shrug. “But I’m a busy man—” “Busy being flippant. I _won’t_ talk in this strain—” “It’s no strain on me—” “Mr. Lanier!” They laughed. “It’s like some horrid give-and-take vaudeville,” she said. . . . “And you _can_ be sensible and interesting. . . . _Pax_, if you please. . . . And I’m sorry for the ‘carpet-cava…