“Oh; then you don’t happen to think that these chaps who were here just now are in love with you? That’s frank enough, isn’t it?” Her face had become roseate, but she was not angry. Whatever she may have been she was sufficiently like other girls to be able to refrain from getting angry at the suggestion that four young men were in love with her at the same time. “It’s nonsense enough,” she said. “You have quite misunderstood the situation, Lord Lullworth. I like Guy Overton and all the others greatly, and I hope they like me. But they are no more in love with me than I am in love with them.” “Do you fancy that a chap allows himself to be led about by a girl all for the fun of the thing?” he asked. “Why should a man think it ridiculous for a woman to be his friend and to give him the advice of a friend--the advice that he would welcome if it were to come from a brother?” she enquired. “I don’t know why, but I know that he does,” said Lord Lullworth. “Anyhow, you don’t think of any of the chaps who were here as a lover?” “I do not,” she cried emphatically--almost eagerly. “That’s all right,” he said quietly--almost sympathetically. “It is all right,” she said. “I believe in the value of friendship according to Plato.” “Have you ever thought of calculating its coefficient of energy, or its breaking strain?” said he. “I do not like people who make fun--who try to make fun of what I believe, Lord Lullworth,” said she. “Do you dislike alarum clocks?” he asked blandly. “Alarum clocks?” She was puzzled. “Yes; I’m an alarum clock--one of the cheap make, I admit, but a going concern and quite effective. I want to rattle in your ears until your eyes are opened.” “You certainly do the rattling very well. But I’m not asleep. I know what you mean to say about my friends.” “I don’t mean to say anything about them. I don’t want to try to make them out to be quite such soft roes as you would have me think they are. I don’t want to talk of them; I want to talk of you.” “Of me? Well?” “Yes, and of me.” “Excellent topics both.” “Yes; but the two of us only make up one topic, and this is it. Now listen. Your mother asked me to call and have tea some afternoon. If she hadn’t asked me I would have asked her permission to do so. I came pretty soon after her invitation, didn’t I?” “I’m so sorry that she has a Committee meeting this afternoon.” “It doesn’t make any difference to me--that is, in what I have to say to you. And what I have to say to you is this; I came early to see you and I’m coming often--very often--you have no notion how often--I don’t believe I quite know it myself. Now no matter how often I come I want you to understand distinctly from the first that I disclaim all intention of using Plato as an umbrella to sit under with you. I am coming in a strictly anti-Platonic spirit.” He had grown a bit red and she had flushed all over.