"Yes; I suppose so." She spoke without enthusiasm. "Wouldn't you prefer Simla?" "Well, naturally--a thousand times." "Then why not go there? I would come up too, like a shot. I can get a couple of months this year, and we'd have a ripping time of it. Shall we call it settled--eh?" She sighed and shook her head. "It's too expensive. Besides, there seems to be something wrong with Simla. My husband doesn't like it much; nor does Honor." The implication in Kresney's laugh was lost upon Evelyn Desmond. "Oh, well, of course Simla isn't much of a place for husbands," he explained loftily, "or for girls. It's the bachelors who have a good time there,--_and_ the married women." "Is it? How odd! I should think anybody who cared about dancing and acting, and all that sort of thing, would be bound to have a lovely time in Simla." She looked him so simply and straightly in the face that he felt unaccountably ashamed of his questionable remark, and the laugh that had preceded it--a sensation to which he was little accustomed. "Yes, yes; daresay you're right," he agreed airily. "But if you're so keen about the place, why not insist upon going? Wives don't trouble overmuch about obedience nowadays; most of them seem to do whatever they please." "Do they? Well, then, I suppose it pleases me to go where my husband likes best." "Very dutiful, indeed!" A shadow of a sneer lurked beneath his bantering tone, and she reddened again. "It's not dutiful at all. It's simply because----" She broke off short. "Oh, I think you're horrid this afternoon. I expect people to make themselves pleasant when I let them come out with me." "Well, I'm sure I do my best. But one can never tell where to have you. Goodness knows I've shown you plainly that I'm ready to be your friend--to any extent; and you've seemed to accept it readily enough----" "Well, of course. I like men to like me. I always did----" "_Men?_" "Yes, men," she nodded, smiling. "I don't trouble much about women--except Honor; and _she's_ worth all the men in creation put together." "Desmond included?" Again the covert sneer lurked in his tone, and she drew herself up with a pretty air of dignity. "That's not any concern of yours." "But I tell you it is!" He pressed closer. "More than you've chosen to realise so far. D'you suppose you can go on indefinitely blowing hot and cold with a man; snubbing him one minute and drawing him on the next?" "Oh dear! Oh dear! I never bother to suppose things! Haven't I said that if you want me to be nice, you mustn't plague me with stupid questions? At any rate, you're seeing a lot of me now. And you're riding a lot with me now--isn't that enough?" "No. It's not enough, Mrs Desmond--Evelyn----" "Oh, hush--hush! You mustn't say that!" she murmured ineffectually; but he paid no heed.