A few minutes more of that, she thought, and she’d begin telling Ford jokes, so she wrenched around to a new subject and asked him how much he’d seen of France; what he thought of the French; how long he’d been home; and what it seemed like to be in civilian clothes again;—­topics upon which he enlarged as well as he could.  She had driven meanwhile, north to Diversey Boulevard and had then turned west, around the ring.  They were out in the middle of Garfield Park when she said after a hard, tight silence, “Isn’t this perfectly ghastly?”

“It’s awful,” he agreed.  “I don’t know what’s the matter with us—­or whose fault it is.  But I certainly didn’t mean to get started like this.”

“I expect that’s it,” she told him.  “Haven’t you been trying to treat me just exactly right?  Make me feel perfectly comfortable?  Haven’t you been—­being tactful, with all your might, ever since we started?  Because I have.”

“Well, then, for heaven’s sake,” he said, “let’s quit!  Quit trying so infernally hard, I mean.  It’s too nice a morning to spoil.  You know, if the sun manages to come out, as it’s trying to, it will be a very handsome April day.”

“I don’t think talking about the weather is much of an improvement,” she commented.  “Tony, let’s give it up, for to-day I mean.  We’ll try again sometime from a fresh start.  This is perfectly hopeless.”

He tried to pretend that she didn’t mean it but she made it clear even with a touch of asperity that she did.  “Oh, all right,” he growled and reached for the handle to the door.

“Don’t be silly,” she commanded.  “I’m not going to leave you out here in the wilds of Garfield Park.  Where do you want to go?  Is it too early for your lunch?”

“Mrs. Wollaston told me to come at one,” he said.  “You aren’t supposed to be ahead of time for a thing like that, are you?  Anyhow, I’ve got to go back to my room first.”

She caught up the name.  “Sarah told me about your going there.  First to tune the piano and then the evening when she sang your songs.  Sarah’s quite eloquent about it.”

“Yes, poor Sarah, I know.  Ben was quoting her this morning.  However, that won’t make the least difference with what I’m going to do.”

“What are you going to do?” she asked.

“Why, I suppose,” he said, “that I’m going to do what people speak of as settling down.  What they mean by that is taking an interest in consequences—­more of an interest in what things lead to than in what they are.  Well, that’s what I’m at now.”

“That’s a change, all right, for you,” she said.