"Friends?" he asked. She experienced a thrill of one who creditably performs a great renunciation without any distress to herself. "Friends!" she said solemnly. Ronnie walked round to his writing chair and sat down. She found satisfaction in the tremor of the hand that opened a portfolio on his desk. "And you're not hurt?" he asked anxiously. "No, Ronnie." "Thank God for that," said Ronald Morelle. He was looking in the black case: presently he pulled out half a dozen photographs and passed them across to her. "How perfectly lovely!" she said. "Yes; in some respects more lovely than Palermo. And there are no earthquakes and no rumblings from old Etna." She was looking at the photographs of a white villa that seemed to be built on the side of a hill. One picture showed a riotous garden, another a lawn with great shady trees and deep basket chairs. "That is my house at Beaulieu," said Ronnie, "I want you to help me with that." She looked at him, ready to reprove. "Your mother is the very woman to run that house and the garden was made for Christina." Her mouth opened. "Not you!" she gasped, "you aren't the man who wants a housekeeper. Oh, Ronnie!" "I haven't photographs of the Palermo villa. I have sent for some. An ideal place for a honeymoon, Evie." He came round to the back of her chair and dropped his hand on her shoulder lightly. "When you marry a nice man, you shall go there for your honeymoon. God love you!" She took his hand and laid it against her cheek. For the fraction of a second-- "I like Beaulieu, Ronnie, the house is a beauty--perhaps if I hurried I could go there before mother." In the hall below Mr. Teddy Williams discussed Canada with the hall porter. It was one of the two subjects in which he was completely interested. The other came down by the elevator, importantly, and they went out into Knightsbridge together. "I've been a long time, Teddy," she snuggled her arm in his, "but--well, first of all, my answer is 'Yes'." He paused, and in the view of revolted passersby, kissed her. "And--and, Teddy, we'll go to Beaulieu afterwards. Mr. Morelle has promised to let us have his house." "Isn't that grand!" said Teddy. "We've got a town called Beaulieu in Saskatchewan." X "Wasn't it just like Christina not to get excited with the great news? But really Evie was to blame, because she kept the greater news to the last. "I can't believe it. That young man who called on Christina? I really can't believe it," said Mrs. Colebrook, who could, and did, believe it. "Why don't you yell, Chris!" demanded her indignant sister. "I am yelling," said Christina placidly. "I've been yelling longer than you, for I knew that it was Ronnie's house when the letter came." But the announcement of Evie's engagement had an electrifying effect.