"I kept mother in suspense for quite a long time. Then I told her, and I also rang up Peter and told him. And now I must fly," cried Lady Tanagra. "I will be here at a quarter to eight, and if you are not ready I shall be angry; but if you have locked yourself in your room I shall batter down the door. We are going to have a very happy evening and you will enjoy yourself immensely. I think it quite likely that Godfrey will fall in love with you as well as Peter, which will still further increase your embarrassments." Then with a sudden change of mood she said, "Please cheer up, Patricia, happiness is not a thing to be taken lightly. You have been a little overwrought of late, and now, good-bye." "One moment, please," said Patricia. "Don't you understand that nothing can possibly be built up on such a foundation as--as----?" "Your picking up Peter in the Grill-room of the Quadrant," said Lady Tanagra calmly. Patricia gasped. "Oh!" she cried. "Let's call things by their right names," said Lady Tanagra. "At the present moment you're putting up rather a big fight against your own inclination, and you are causing yourself a lot of unnecessary unhappiness. Is it worth it?" she asked. "One's self-respect is always worth any sacrifice," said Patricia. "Except when you are in love, and then you take pride in trampling it under foot." With this oracular utterance Lady Tanagra departed with a bright nod, a smile and an insistence that Patricia should not come downstairs. CHAPTER XIII A TACTICAL BLUNDER "I often think," remarked Lady Tanagra as she helped herself a second time to hors d'oeuvres, "that if Godfrey could only be condensed or desiccated he would save the world from ennui." Elton looked up from a sardine he was filleting with great interest and care; concentration was the foundation of Godfrey Elton's character. "Does that mean that he is a food or a stimulant?" enquired Patricia, Elton having returned to his sardine. Lady Tanagra regarded Elton with thoughtful brow. "I think," she said deliberately, "I should call him a habit." "Does that imply that he is a drug upon the market?" retorted Patricia. Bowen laughed. Elton continued to fillet his sardine. "You see," continued Lady Tanagra, "Godfrey has two qualities that to a woman are maddening. The first is the gift of silence, and the second is a perfect genius for making everyone else feel that they are in the wrong. Some day he'll fall in love, and then something will snap and--well, he will give up dissecting sardines as if they were the one thing in life worthy of a man's attention." Elton looked up again straight into Lady Tanagra's eyes and smiled. "Look at him now!" continued Lady Tanagra, "that very smile makes me feel like a naughty child." The four were dining in Bowen's sitting-room at the Quadrant, Lady Tanagra having decided that this would be more pleasant than in the public dining-room.