Lydon was very pleased to hear that Gloria had simple tastes, that luxury was not essential to her. Presently he said to her: “Do you know, I have got a little whim that I should like to have just another of those quiet little meetings before we take the others into our confidence. I wonder if you would very much mind?” Miss Stormont had one very delightful feminine trait, she was always ready to admit the supremacy of the sterner sex, and give way to them wherever it was consistent with her own dignity. “If you very much wish it, I don’t mind in the least,” she answered sweetly. “But I would like to know the reason of this whim.” “I am afraid I cannot give a very lucid explanation,” said the young man rather lamely. “Somehow, I seem to like you in a somewhat less gorgeous setting than this. You are housed like a Princess.” She looked at him with comprehending eyes. “Does it oppress you just a little bit, this--this magnificence?” she asked. “A tiny bit, I must confess,” he admitted, admiring her quickness. She looked thoughtful. “I had rather the same feeling when I first came to live with my uncle. My father has a good position in China, but he is not of course a rich man, and our life out there was quite simple compared to this. I am rather surprised though about you. From what I am told, your father was quite a wealthy man, uncle says, much richer than himself. You must have been used to it all your life.” “Not quite. All the time we children were at school--and my dear father gave us the best of educations, he thought that was the most priceless asset a man could bestow upon his offspring--our home was conducted upon a comfortable but perfectly modest scale. It was not till after I left Oxford that he launched out into something like this. And during those very fat years I was seldom at home. So I had really no time to grow in love with luxury.” “I don’t know that I am really in love with it. I mean it would cause me no pain to descend to a much lower standard of living. But to uncle all this is the breath of his nostrils; he is naturally one of the most reckless and extravagant of men. He scatters money with an absolutely lavish hand. I am sure that auntie, who, of course, knows more about his affairs than I do, is often frightfully worried about it. She has often tried to dissuade him from some contemplated extravagance, but to no purpose.”