"I bought them from a peddler; I stopped his wagon in the street and made him carry them up here. They only cost two dollars; and I was economical at the market," she explained.
He glanced up at the awning gay with yellow and white stripes.
"Macy's," she admitted guiltily; "I'll starve you at dinner to-night to pay for it."
He looked at her rather queerly, she thought.
"There are things I'd starve for--and people."
"That's very nice and gallant and obvious," she said in such a tormenting tone that he broke out almost impatiently:
"Japonette, can't you ever take me seriously?"
For an instant the smile remained stamped on their lips; then the slight strain became perceptible, a moment only, for she turned lightly away and seated herself on the edge of a big hanging seat.
"More Macy," she nodded ruefully. "We'll all have to fast to-morrow.... You may sit here, too, if you wish.'"
A family of starlings were nesting in the cornices of the roof across the way, and the two young people watched the old birds for a while flying to the park and returning with food for their invisible young.
"Horrid, isn't it?" observed Diana. "But that's the way of things. No sooner are you married and happy than--zip! the scene changes, and you turn into a wretched purveyor of nourishment for the next generation. Carpe diem!"
"Cede Deo! It's probably good fun," commented Edgerton.
"What? Slaving for others just when you are all ready for real happiness?"
"_That's_ happiness, or nobody would do it--not even those birds."
"Maybe with birds. Instincts are all right for birds, but we humans are usually arrested when we follow our instincts."
She laughed. "That _is_ true; it's neither instinct nor happiness that makes us slaves to babies:--it's duty."
"If that were all it is," he said, "the state would be nourishing the majority of infants. No; it's probably fun, Diana. That's the only possible explanation."
She shrugged her dainty shoulders and looked at the westering sun above Staten Island; and in the gesture she seemed, in pantomime, to discard all feminine duties, cares, and responsibilities forever. Then as she rested there, cheek on hand, her blue eyes grew vaguer.
"I am glad you came into our lives," she said; "I mean it this time."