So, he persisted, with a bitter sense of failure that would not wholly, honestly recognize itself.
"Is Golightly Ticke your friend--completely ?" "More--pardon me--than you could ever be," she answered him, undaunted by the contempt in his tone.
There was silence for a moment between them.

Elfrida's wide-eyed gaze wandered appreciatively over the dusky interior, which for the man beside her barely existed.
"What a lot of English character there is here," she said softly.

"How dignified it is, and conscientious, and restrained!" It was as if she had not spoken.

Cardiff stared with knit brows into the insoluble problem she had presented to him a moment longer.

"_How_ are we so different, Elfrida ?" he broke out passionately.