Polly entered first. Her face was no longer blazing white. It was flushed, but otherwise composed. Elsie looked distraught, and fell at once into a chair, staring and gasping. Polly’s head was as high as Gita’s. Her tones had never been more crisp and metallic. “Well!” she said. “I tried to kill you. No intention of denying it. Almost wish I had. But once more you’ve won out. Call the police if you like.” Gita shrugged disdainfully. There was a sound of flying feet on the stair. “What is the matter?” demanded the nurse. “How could you make such a terrible noise under Mr. Bylant’s window? I only waited to give him an opiate, but he won’t calm down until he knows what has happened.” Gita dismissed her with an impatient wave of the hand. “Miss Pleyden lost control of her car. Nobody is hurt. Please tell him so at once.” The nurse, her curiosity by no means gratified, retired from a promising scene. Gita turned to Polly. “I really think there is nothing more to say. Don’t you think we’d all better go to bed?” Polly looked at her wonderingly. “Don’t you realize that I tried to kill you?” she asked. “Well, what of it? You didn’t. Nor do I feel disposed to lay it up against you. No doubt I’d have done the same thing in your place. Succeeded, too. If ever I start out to kill anyone I’ll do it. No anticlimaxes for me.” Polly gave a short laugh. “Couldn’t have thought of anything more cutting! Can feel the knife down on the bone. Perhaps you are grateful to me. You always wanted drama. You’ve hit the high spots twice in one week.” “Melodrama,” corrected Elizabeth Pelham. “But love and melodrama seem to be synonymous terms—in real life, at all events. We do it better in fiction. First Eustace, then you. And both of you belong to the topmost stratum of civilization!” “No one is civilized,” snapped Polly. “There’s not one of us—who’s _alive_—who wouldn’t kill to get what we wanted, if we dared. Well, I dared, and I’m not feeling ashamed of myself. Not a bit.” She turned to Gita. “You said out there I had no ‘right.’ I have! And you know it! He was mine and you deliberately took him from me.” “He never was yours. Nor had he ever the least idea you cared for him, if that’s any consolation.” “What on earth did he think? I’ve not looked at another man for months.” “Thought you were amusing yourself with a new type. You told him you amused yourself with one man after another.” “Probably did. Sounds like me. Nothing so blind as a man who’s in love with another woman. Were you out with him tonight? I’ve a right to ask that.” “Well, I was.” “Did he make love to you?” “Of course not! How could you think of such a thing?” “Don’t trust any man. But he’s in love with you and you with him. Don’t deny it.” Gita gazed over her head. Polly turned white and beat her hands together.