"Peter!" she cried as she entered the room and threw herself into an easy chair, "if ever I again endeavour to divert true love from its normal----" "How is she?"' interrupted Bowen. "Now you've spoiled it," cried Lady Tanagra, "and it was----" "Spoiled what?" demanded Bowen. "My beautiful phrase about true love and its normal channel, and I have been saying it over to myself all the way from Galvin House." She looked reproachfully at her brother. "How's Patricia?" demanded Bowen eagerly. "Fair to moderately fair, rain later, I should describe her," replied Lady Tanagra, helping herself to a cigarette which Bowen lighted. "She's going away." "Good heavens! Where?" cried Bowen. "Eastbourne." "When?" "To-morrow." "Damn!" "My dear Peter," remarked Lady Tanagra lazily, "this primitive profanity ill becomes----" "Please don't rot me, Tan," he pleaded. "I've had a rotten time lately." There was helpless and hopeless pain in Bowen's voice that caused Lady Tanagra to spring up from her chair and go over to him. "Carry on, old boy," she cried softly, as she caressed his coat-sleeve. "It's your only chance. You're going to win." "I must see her!" blurted out Bowen. "If you do you'll spoil everything," announced Lady Tanagra with conviction. "But, last night," began Bowen and paused. "Last night, I think," said Lady Tanagra, "was a master-stroke. She is touched; it's taken us forward at least a week." "But look here, Tan," said Bowen gloomily, "you told me to leave it all in your hands and you make me treat her rottenly, then you say----" "That you know about as much of how to make a woman like Patricia fall in love with you as an ostrich does of geology," said Lady Tanagra calmly. "But what will she think?" demanded Bowen. "At present she is thinking that Eastbourne will be a nightmare of loneliness." "I'll run down and see her," announced Bowen. "If you do, Peter!" There was a note of warning in Lady Tanagra's voice. "All right," he conceded gloomily. "I'll give you another week, and then I'll go my own way." "Peter, if you were smaller and I were bigger I think I should spank you," laughed Lady Tanagra. Then with great seriousness she said, "I want you to marry her, and I'm going the only way to work to make her let you. Do try and trust me, Peter." Bowen looked down at her with a smile, touched by the look in her eyes. For a moment his arm rested across her shoulders. Then he pushed her towards the door. "Clear out, Tan. I'm not fit for a bear-pit to-night." The Bowens were never demonstrative with one another. For half an hour Bowen sat smoking one cigarette after another until he was interrupted by the entrance of Peel, who, after a comprehensive glance round the room, proceeded to administer here and there those deft touches that emphasize a patient and orderly mind. Bowen watched him as he moved about on the balls of his feet.