"I thought you knew it wouldn't alter our futures," he said. "I was only trying to think out a just solution unpersuaded by your body in my arms."
"Oh!" She laughed comfortably. He was making fun of her, and she was not averse to it.
"It certainly looks as if Philip were up against a bad future," he went on, amusedly.
"Philip!" she cried, startled. "Are you pitying him all this time?"
"Whom else?" Lawrence demanded. "We don't need pity, do we?"
"Oh, you selfish lover!" she chided. "I have been needing and do need it. Philip worries me."
"I see," he mused. "Well, accept my condolences, and prepare to pass them on to Philip. Poor devil! When you and I are back in our world, he will indeed need pity."
"Suppose he takes steps to see that I don't go back?" she chanced.
"He can scarcely compel you to live with him."
"He can, and he will. He isn't as civilized as he appears. If need be, he would keep me locked up here and make me his by force, or kill me. He told me so."
"Romantic raving for effect!" he exclaimed. "But if he should happen to try that, well, I think my argument might be as effective as his."
"But how do you propose to stop him? I tell you, he is in earnest." Claire was insistent.
"Why, in whatever way is necessary. If it is my life against his, I'll give him the best I've got."
She looked at Lawrence in wonder. He was as calm as if he had been making small talk at a theater-party.
"Can you plan it so--so carelessly, like that?" she asked.
"Why not? I could hardly allow him to take you by force. I wouldn't choose a fight as a diversion, but once in, I wouldn't stop short of his life. And I wouldn't feel any compunction afterward, either."
"Well," she said quickly, "it won't be necessary."
"I think not." He smiled. "We need say nothing about our plans. Once we get into town, all the world is ours, and we can quietly depart, leaving Philip Ortez a very pleasant memory."
Neither of them allowed for that vast portion of human character which lies beyond the knowledge of the most keen-visioned. Claire was more familiar with the distinctly male phases of Philip than Lawrence--perhaps a woman always is--but they were too happy to give the matter any real consideration, and, after the fashion of all lovers, they shut out the third person from their little self-bound universe.