“Indeed!” he said, and smiled. “Miss Ford couldn’t be expected to understand our ways, Trenter. I will see her.” He knocked at the door and a voice bade him enter. “I am delighted to meet you, Cousin Diana,” he said, and looked round to discover how she might be met. Then from his favourite chair a white hand appeared. “Come in, Gordon.... I’m sure it’s Gordon.” She jumped up and round to face him. She had taken off her shoes for greater comfort, and in her silk-stockinged feet looked very small. He thought she was pretty, just as he would have thought that a kitten was pretty. How very amusing. “Well, young lady,” he said with paternal good-humour, “so here you are! I never expected to see you. Have you had a good voyage----?” “Are you married?” She asked the question rather tensely. “No, I’m not married. I’m a confirmed old bachelor.” “Ah!” She sighed happily. “I was awfully scared of that complication--you haven’t kissed me.” Gordon was not aware that he had not kissed her, any more than he was aware that he had not hit her on the head with the book he was carrying. The Selsburys were a courtly race. He stooped and struck her gently with his lips. “Sit down, my dear--you will have tea, of course? I am truly sorry that I kept you waiting. Where are you staying?” She flashed one look at him. “Here,” she said. For a second he could not comprehend. “I mean, what hotel--where are you--er--sleeping to-night?” “Here,” said Diana. In moments of crisis Gordon never lost his head. He once stood on the deck of a sinking cross-Channel steamer discussing the atomic theory with a Cambridge don. He had twice heard burglars in the house, and had often been called upon without notice at public meetings to propose the health of the chairman. “You mean that you are coming to stay with me--for a little while? I would be delighted, but unfortunately this is a bachelor establishment. There are no women in the house except the domestic staff.” He spoke kindly; his argument was logical, his attitude correct in every detail. “You want a woman about the house; it was very nearly time I came,” she said, as unflurried as Gordon himself. He stifled his sigh. The position was embarrassing--other men would have been thrown off their feet and either lost their tempers or behaved in some way hurtfully. “I shall be delighted to have you here--for a few days,” he smiled. “So run along and telephone to your chaperone and ask her to bring her trunks here----” Diana pulled on her shoes, unconcerned. “I’ve been admiring your oars,” she said. “You rowed six, didn’t you--and won! How splendid!” “Yes, yes--er--yes.” Gordon was not proud of his bygone athleticism. “Or shall I telephone?” “To whom?” innocently. “To your chaperone ... the lady with whom you are travelling....” “Don’t be silly.” He stiffened; went limp again: turned a shade paler.