“But it is raining fast, and you will only get wet.” Lawrence spoke a little urgently, while the butler waited with impassive face. “I love getting wet,” icily. The faintest suspicion of a smile hovered over Lawrence’s lips, but he only turned to the butler and said, “Go and ask Miss Doreen’s maid for a cloak and umbrella.” Paddy was unpleasantly aware that she could not afford to risk getting her one smart costume spoiled, so she yielded with a bad grace. When they were alone he turned to her again, and his thin lips compressed into a straight line. “I see you are a good hater,” he said, “but I only like you the better for it. Do you remember—I said you had given me a new interest in life, and that I would subdue you some day? I am going to begin now.” “And I replied that I despised you. I have seen no reason to change my mind. It is not of the least consequence to me what you do.” There was a gleam in his eyes that might have meant either admiration or war, but Paddy, a moment later, only flung out of the house without deigning him so much as a glance. When she had gone, Lawrence did not return to the drawing-room. He went into his den and closed the door. On the hearthrug he stood looking silently at the floor. “By Jove,” he muttered a last, “who would have thought she would develop like this. Paddy-the-next-best-thing,” with a little smile, “has become Patricia-the-Great.” CHAPTER XXXII Paddy Learns Her Mistake. True to her word, Gwen called for Doreen a few days later, and the two drove in a taxi to Shepherd’s Bush and found their way to the surgery, where Paddy, in a large black apron, was busy with her prescriptions. They stayed about ten minutes and then drove away again, leaving Paddy less able than ever to resist Gwen’s overtures. At the same time, she felt no less incensed against Lawrence and anxious to avoid meeting him, which was the cause of her reluctance to accept an invitation to a small dance at Gwen’s beautiful home in Grosvenor Place. “I have no dress good enough,” she told Doreen when they talked it over, “and I can’t afford to get a new one on purpose.” “Nonsense,” asserted Doreen promptly. “I know quite well you have. Why, that pretty dress you had for our coming-out dance is not two years old, and you have scarcely worn it at all. You must just send it to me, and I will get Jean to do it up for you. You simply must come. It will be such a jolly dance. Not a grand one at all, but one of Gwen’s impromptu hops, as she calls them.” In the end Paddy gave in, and on the evening of the dance arrived at Cadogan Place in time to go with Doreen and Lawrence in their brougham. She knew Lawrence would be there, but was prepared for it, and chatted merrily to Doreen without ever including him if she could help it. Lawrence took no notice, merely sitting forward, opposite to them, with his arms across his knees, casually glancing through an evening paper.