Tea was presently served. Silvette in her silk lounging suit came over and seated herself on the edge of the bed; the maid finished drawing the bath, and retired until again summoned. "Well," sighed Silvette, pouring the tea, "here we are, Di. How do you feel about it now?" "Depressed," said Diana briefly. "So do I, somehow.... I wish we were back in New York, with just enough to live on." Diana swung her foot gently, but made no reply. Presently she kicked off her sandal, lay thinking a moment, and then sat up and accepted the cup of tea offered by her sister. They sipped their tea in silence for a while, nibbled toast and cakes until sufficiently refreshed. "After all," observed Silvette, "what we are doing for a living is purely a matter of personal taste. It ought not to depress us." "We should have told him! That is the only thing that worries me," remarked Diana. "Still, it is really none of his business what we do for a living." "After all," repeated Silvette, "what is there to tell him? Keno, Nevada, has nothing to learn from New York in frivolity, I fancy. There are several pretty women in every set who’d starve if they didn’t play cards better than their neighbors." "I rather wish we’d told him about our year there; yet, what is there to tell? Probably it resembled plenty of years with which he is perfectly familiar." "Do we have to account to Jim Edgerton anyway?" asked Silvette impatiently. "He wanted to come with us," mused Diana. "When he wants to go, he’ll go fast enough, I fancy. It isn’t what he might think, or his possible disapproval, that worries me; it’s that he ought to have been told more about us in the beginning.... But how were we to tell him?" "He didn’t ask, did he?" "No; but, somehow or other, we ought to have put him au courant, and then he could have had his choice about recognizing the relationship or ignoring it. That’s what bothers me a little." "How could we possibly have told him all about ourselves the first afternoon we ever set eyes on him?" "There were two other afternoons; one is just ending.... I don’t know; I might easily have created a situation in which it would have seemed natural enough to mention our programme to him." "Why didn’t you, Di?" "Cowardice," said the girl frankly; and she stretched herself out flat on the bed again. "Do you think as much of Jim Edgerton’s opinion as that?" "I seem to.... I didn’t want to take the risk of his disapproval. I’m beginning to realize that we’ve been dishonest with him." "That is an ugly word, little sister." "I don’t know any way to soften it. A girl is either honest or the contrary. I was not honest with Jim Edgerton." "He might not disapprove, after all. He is no provincial."