The swift charm of her impatience surprised and touched him. Again this young man was rapidly losing his balance in the girl’s candour. “Whenever you care to see me,” he said, “I’ll come.... Any day, any hour.” She said, with surprise and emotion: “You are very kind to me, Mr. Annan. You always have been----” “It is you who are kind. You seem unconscious of your own generosity. Will you come to see me, or shall I come to you, Eris?” “You know,” she explained with happy animation, “I’ve taken the entire floor where I had my room in Jane Street. It would be quite all right for you to come.” “Fine!” he exclaimed. “Tea?” “Why--that’s not very early----” “After lunch, then?” “You _could_ come to breakfast,” she said with a half shy, half laughing glance. “I was born on a farm and I rise very early. You do, too--I remember----” “You friendly girl! You bet I’ll come!” “I hate to waste time in sleep,” she added, still shy and smiling.... “What do you like for breakfast, Mr. Annan?--Oh, I remember. Mrs. Sniffen told me----” “You surely can’t recollect----” “Yes, I do.... Do you think I could ever forget anything that happened there?... You breakfast at eight----” She laughed with sheer delight: “That is going to be wonderful, Mr. Annan--to be able to offer you breakfast in my own apartment!” “And we lunch at the Ritz and dine at my house,” he added. “Wonderful! Wonderful! And I _can_ accept, because I have--proper clothes! Isn’t it perfectly enchanting--the way it all has turned out?” That he was quite conscious of the enchantment appeared plain enough to people who chanced to enter the room where they stood together in the recess of the open window. Several of the men so recently bereaved of Eris evinced an inclination to hover about the vicinity. Once or twice Annan was aware of black hair and ruddy features in the offing--a glimpse of Albert Smull, passing, elaborately oblivious. “I must tell you,” said Eris, making no effort to conceal regret, “that there’s a business matter I shall have to attend to in a few minutes. Rosalind insists that the announcement be made this evening. It’s a great secret, but I’ll tell you: I’m going to have my own company!” She gave him her hands, laughing, excited by his astonishment and the ardour of his impetuous congratulations. “Isn’t it too splendid! I can scarcely believe it, Mr. Annan. But in our last picture it came to a point where Betsy thought we were, perhaps, interfering with each other--I mean that--that----” “I understand.” Eris flushed: “Betsy was so sweet and generous about it. But I, somehow, realised that I’d have to go.... It was right that I should.... And I had a talk with Frank Donnell.... I don’t know who told Mr. Smull about it, but he telegraphed that he was coming out. He came with Mr. Shill.... That was how it happened. Mr. Smull offered me my company. I was thunderstruck, Mr. Annan----”