"I _am_ going to do what I can for him," she said excitedly. "I am going to see what can be done to arouse the man in him. All he needs is the initial shock—a—a stinging one." "What do you mean? If there was anything in him, the shock of the firm’s failure would have brought it out." "It was not enough. It was only the loss of money! There are worse things——" "Di! What are you going to do?" Suddenly the girl’s face grew radiant. "I know now," she said breathlessly. "What?" But Diana only kissed her sister, laughing, flushed, excited, and, extending her arm, turned off the light, plunging the room and her brilliant cheeks in darkness. *CHAPTER VII* *FLOS VENERIS* Edgerton and Christine, ensconced in the corners of a window seat, and partly visible through the leaded panes, were too deeply absorbed in each other to be aware of the curious glances shot toward them from the tennis court outside, where Silvette, Colonel Curmew, Mrs. Lorrimore, and Jack Rivett were playing, while Diana, perched aloft with her knitting in the umpire’s seat, resolutely ignored the spectacle in the window, which was plainer to her than to anybody else. Perfectly oblivious to any extraneous interest they aroused, sitting almost nose to nose and knee to knee in the deep recess, Christine and Edgerton remained in close consultation, preoccupied, possibly indifferent, to view or comment. Christine bent forward, and drew a carnation through his buttonhole, saying: "Anyway, you are a perfect dear, Jim Edgerton. Somehow or other, I haven’t any blushes for what I’ve taken so many weeks to tell you. I never thought I could know anybody well enough to say such a thing to, but you _are_ different; there’s nobody like you, Jim. Do you wonder I adore you?" "You sweet little thing, I’ve a mind to kiss you for that!" "I may let you at the psychological moment. _Do_ you think me absolutely shameless?—but I’ve asked you that before about a dozen times.... You _don’t_ think so, do you?" "If other women displayed the common honesty and common sense that you display, there’d be a good deal less unhappiness in the world." "But how _can_ other women, when there is only one Jim Edgerton! Oh, I liked you so much—as soon as I saw you; and before I had known you a week, I was ready to tell you anything—and now I’ve done it!" "It took several weeks before you came to the point," he said, laughing. "I know, but, oh! it was such a terrible thing to do!—I don’t even now understand how I ever came to tell you." "You didn’t; I extracted it, seeing that you were in pain." She blushed. "Yes, it was pain.... Not one of my own family suspected it. Father doesn’t dream of such a thing; Jack doesn’t, of course. As for dear little mother, you know what she thinks about you and me." Edgerton smiled almost tenderly. "She is very nice to me," he said. "I almost wish I could verify her charming theory."