Her face was full of a horrified surprise. “I do get things out so, in talking to you,” she added in a hurried murmur. “Oh, not words; thoughts, I mean. You let me go on talking, and I straighten myself out before my own eyes. You know? Till now, I’ve never seen what I was coming down to. Poor old Arsenio! After all, he’s not a snake or a toad, is he?” She laughed tremulously. “Though why should one be cruel even to toads and snakes? One just leaves them alone. That’s what I must do with Arsenio.” “An illogical conclusion—since he isn’t snake or toad,” I said, as lightly as I could. “Oh, you know! That’s it! Yes, I’ve been saying that I was very just, and fine, and all that! And I’ve really been enjoying it! Julius dear, has my honest work been all just viciousness—cattiness, you know?” “God bless you, no! Why do you round on yourself like this? You’ve come through the whole thing splendidly. Oh, you’re human! There’s Nina, and all that, of course. But it’s nonsense to twist the whole thing like that.” “Yes, it is,” she decided—this time quickly, even abruptly. “It hasn’t been that—not most of it anyhow. But it’s in danger of being it now. It almost is it, isn’t it?” “Sometimes, at dinner, I’ve thought you a little cruel.” “Yes—I have been.” She rose to her feet almost with a jump. “If I have to go—to rescue myself from that—will you help me, Julius? Because I’ve no money to go far—to take myself out of his reach.” As—on this question—we stood opposite to one another, she just murmuring “Yes, that’s it,” I nonplussed at her question, at the whole turn her talk had taken—we heard the tramp of steps on the stone staircase. She flung me a glance; more than one person was coming up. “It’s just like Arsenio not to have told us!” she whispered with a smile. “You mean——?” I whispered back. “He’s been to meet him at the station, of course! Julius, how shall I behave?” We heard the door of the apartment opened. The next moment Arsenio opened the door of the room, and ushered in Godfrey Frost, in a big fur coat, fresh from the train evidently. “Here he is!” Arsenio cried, almost triumphantly. Godfrey stood on the threshold, obviously taken aback. It was clear that Arsenio had not told him that he was to meet the pair of us. Arsenio wore his most characteristic grin. I could not help smiling at it. Lucinda laughed openly. Godfrey, caught unawares as he was, carried the position off bravely. “Delightful to see you both! But where am I? Whose charming room is this?” “It’s the devil and all to know that! We live so funnily,” said Monkey Valdez. CHAPTER XXI PARTIE CARRÉE