Let her get used to him as a man who had it in him to be as natural and impersonal, and even as cubbish, as some of the boys she knew.

Later, when night had laid its magic on the earth, he would make his last bid for her kisses--or take her with him across the horizon.
"How do you like that ?" he asked, and pointed to a charmingly grotesque piece of old Staffordshire pottery which made St.George a stunted churchwarden with the legs of a child, his horse the kind of animal that would be used in a green grocer's cart and the dragon a cross between a leopard and a half-bred bulldog.
"Very amusing," she said, going over to it.
And the instant her back was turned, he opened a drawer in a sideboard and satisfied himself that the thing which might have to put them into Eternity together lay there, loaded.
II "And now," he said gayly, "let's dine and, if you don't mind, I will buttle.

I hate servants in a place like this." He went to the head of the table and drew back a chair.
Joan sat down, thanking him with a smile.

It was hard to believe that, with the words of that girl still ringing in her ears and the debris of her hopes lying in a heap about her feet, she was going through the process of being nice to this man who had his claims.

It was unreal, fantastic.