He signified his ignorance. At the moment he did not associate the name. "She talks in her sleep," Christina went on slowly, "and she's spoken that name lots of times. I haven't told mother; what would be the good, with her heart as it is? 'Ronnie' is the man who is worrying her. I think she is in love with him, or what she thinks is love. And he is somebody in a good station of life, because once she called out in the middle of the night, 'Ronnie, take me in your car.'" Sault was silent. This was the first time Christina had ever spoken to him about the girl. "There is only one thing that can happen," said she wisely, "and that would break mother's heart. Mother has very narrow views. The people of our class have. I should feel that way myself if I hadn't seen the world," she patted the book by her side, "perhaps mother's view is right. She is respectable and the old Roman Emperor Constantine, when he classified the nobility, made the 'respectable' much superior to the 'honorable'." "What do you mean--about Evie?" "I mean that she'll come to me one night and tell me that she is in trouble. And then I shall have to get mother into a philosophical mood and try to make her see that it is better for a child to be illegitimate than not to be born at all." "Good gracious!" said Ambrose, startled. "But it may be--just a friendship." "Rats!" said Christina contemptuously. "Friendships between attractive shop girls and well-to-do young men! I've heard about 'em--platonic. Have you ever heard of Archianassa? She was Plato's mistress. He didn't even practice the kind of love that is named after him. Evie is a good girl and has really fine principles. I shock her awfully at times, I wish I didn't. I don't mean I wish I didn't say things that make her shocked, but that she wouldn't be shocked at all. You have to have a funny kink in your mind before you take offense at the woman and man facts. If you blush easily, you fall easily. I wish to God Evie wasn't so pretty. And she's a dear, too, Ambrose. She has great schemes for getting me away to a country where my peculiar ailment will dissolve under uninterrupted sunlight. Poor darling! It would be better if she thought more of her own dangerous sickness." "Ronald Morelle," said Ambrose suddenly, "but it wouldn't be he." "Who is Ronald Morelle?" "He is the only Ronald I know. I don't even know him. He's a friend of a--a friend of mine." "Rich--where does he live?" "In Knightsbridge somewhere." Christina whistled. "Glory be! Evie's shop is in Knightsbridge!" At eleven o'clock that night Evie Colebrook came into the room, and, as she stooped over the bed to kiss her sister, Christina saw something. "You've been crying, Evie." Evie turned away quickly and began to unfasten her skirt. "I--I twisted my ankle--slipped off the sidewalk--I was a baby to cry!" Christina watched her as she undressed rapidly. "You haven't said your prayers, Evie."