"There's nothing to do in your business just now, as you said, and you should give these talky people a chance to forget. We could have a good time over there. You might buy some things and sell them here, and make your expenses that way easily. You know all the nice little places, and if Maida and her husband come over, we could take an auto and do them. Think of Italy in May!" She unclasped her hands and leaned forward, resting one arm on the cushioned back of the lounge, and thus revealing a very pretty forearm and wrist. Two little red spots of enthusiasm glowed in her cheeks. What life and vitality at forty-three! the man thought, smiling appreciatively into her face. For the first time she moved him emotionally. He was lonely, miserable, and thoroughly susceptible to such charm as she had. "It would be awfully pleasant," he said at last, leaning toward her, "to get away from this place, with you!" ... His hand slipped to her beautiful arm. At that moment Venetia came into the room, unnoticed by the two on the lounge. She stood for a little while watching them, and then, with a smile on her expressive lips, noiselessly withdrew. "Well, wire for a passage to-morrow," Mrs. Phillips murmured.... There was nothing more, nothing that would have offended the most scrupulous; for the architect, at least, was essentially healthy-minded. In a lonely moment he might satisfy the male need for sympathy by philandering with a pretty woman, who soothed his bruised egotism. But he did not have that kind of weakness--the woman weakness. A few minutes later he was leaving the room, saying as he looked into Louise Phillips's brown eyes:-- "Yes, I think you are right. I need to get away from this town for a while and rest my nerves." "When you come back people will be only too glad to see you. They don't remember their scruples long." "There isn't anything for them to worry over." "The _Kronprinz_, then." In the hall he met Venetia, who was slowly coming down the stairs, wrapped in a long cloak. She hesitated a moment, then continued to descend. "Hello, Venetia!" Hart called out. She swept down the remaining steps without replying, her eyes shining hotly. As she passed him, she turned and shot one word full in his face,--"Cad!" CHAPTER XXV The girl's word was like a blow in the face. It toppled over any self-complacency that had survived these last disintegrating months. Was he as mean a thing as that? So little that a girl whom he had always treated with jovial condescension might insult him, unprovoked? Probably others, all those people whose acquaintance he valued, had a like contempt for him, which they refrained, conventionally, from expressing. At first he did not resent their judgment; he was too much dazed.