"By this time next year lunch at the Lancaster will be an every-day event. Just now it can't be--so I'll trouble you for a little more fizz, Arthur," said Joe, with his great jolly laugh. "Don't count your chickens----!" said cautious Marie. "A coward's proverb!" cried Arthur gaily. "Why, you lose half the fun if you don't!" "Even if we do fail, we shall have had our fun," Joe remarked philosophically. The others could hardly follow him to these serene heights. Amabel had persuaded gold out of her "governor." Marie felt decidedly responsible to old Sarradet; and the pledge that Arthur had given to fortune was very heavy. "If it becomes necessary, we'll try to feel like that," said Arthur, "but I hope we shan't have to try." "Of course we shan't," Amabel insisted eagerly. "How can it fail? Of course it mayn't be quite such an enormous success as _Help Me_----" "It'll knock _Help Me Out Quickly_ into a cocked hat," Joe pronounced decisively. "Just see if it don't!" He turned to Marie. "Then what sort of a smile shall we see on old Sidney's face?" He could not quite forgive Sidney Barslow (hero as he was!) for having refused to "come in." "Sidney's a wise man about business and--and money. Wiser than we are perhaps!" Marie smiled as she ate her ice. "Sidney's developing all the virtues at a great pace," laughed Amabel. "Under somebody's influence!" Joe laughed too; so did Marie, but she also blushed a little. Arthur was suddenly conscious of a joke which was new to him--something which the other three understood but he did not. He looked at Joe in involuntary questioning. Joe winked. He saw Marie's blush; it caused him a vague displeasure. "Yes," Joe nodded. "He is. Works like a horse and goes to bed at eleven o'clock! I shouldn't be surprised if he turned up one fine day with a blue ribbon in his coat!" "Oh, don't be so silly, Joe," laughed Marie; but the laugh sounded a little vexed, and the blush was not quite gone yet. "Why, what do you mean?" asked Arthur. "Joking apart, he has put the brake on. Jolly good thing too! He's such a good chap--really." Arthur was not ungenerous, but he could not help feeling that the apotheosis of Sidney Barslow might be carried too far. The vision of the scene in Oxford Street was still vivid in his mind; it would need a lot of heroism, a lot of reformation, altogether to obliterate that, however much he might agree to a gentler judgment of it. "No, don't make a joke of it, Joe, anyhow not to Sidney himself," said Marie, looking a little embarrassed still, but speaking with her usual courage. "Because it's for our sake--well, mostly so, I think--that he's--he's doing what he is. I told him that in the beginning he had led Raymond into mischief, and that he ought to set him a better example now. And he's trying--without much success, I'm afraid, as far as Raymond is concerned." Her voice grew very troubled. "I'm awfully sorry, Marie," Arthur murmured.