"I offered him a cigar, but he shook his head: 'My voice is my fortune, sir,' he said." "Sensible," said Mrs. Wilbur, not looking up from the silk she was knitting. "When are you giving your dinner party?" "To-morrow night." "That is good, for we must be on our way," said Mr. Wilbur. He yawned. "I'm dead to the world. I must go to sleep." "Daddy," said Diana, "are we really going away at once?" He took her hand, and it was cold. "Yes, I think we shall have to be off." He regarded her with affectionate thoughtfulness. "I want to go somewhere and find some roses for you." The roses suddenly bloomed in the girl's face under his searching eyes. "You want to go with your old dad, don't you?" he added affectionately. "Of course I do, dearest," she answered, and he forgave her the lie because she looked so pretty in her embarrassment. "But I have packing to do, you know. I can't go without any warning." He continued to gaze at her and to hold her cold hand. "That young Caruso of yours is quite a boy," he said irrelevantly. "No lugs, honest, substantial." "He is more than that, Daddy. He is a self-made man." "Did a good job, too; physically at least." "No; more than that; he has been a hero to get where he is in his art." "Told you so, eh?" "No, indeed." The roses bloomed brighter. The hand twitched in his. "He gratified my curiosity one day by telling me his experiences. He thinks they were entirely commonplace. He was very poor and with no influence, but his persistence and determination won." "That's the stuff," returned Charles Wilbur quietly. "I like the way he treats his grandmother, too." "And, Charlie," said his wife, looking up from her work, "I believe I'll invite some people from Lenox. I'll have a house party." "Very well, my dear." Her husband smiled toward her preoccupied face, and released his daughter's hand. "Now, you run along up to the Inn, Diana," said Mrs. Wilbur, "and pack. Then have Mr. Blake bring the trunk and our bags aboard this afternoon." "Not go back to the Inn at all, afterward, then?" asked Diana. "No. There won't be any necessity. I told that perfectly crazy Léonie to have my things and hers ready and bring them aboard before dinner. She looked at me as if I had struck her down." "Poor Léonie," breathed Diana. Mrs. Wilbur shrugged her shoulders. "I shall be lucky if she doesn't tell me she has decided to marry Bill Lindsay and stay here." The lady laughed and looked at her husband. "I should have to invite them to take their wedding trip on the yacht, for I can't let her go until she has shown some one else how to do my hair." "Let her teach me, immediately, to-day," said Diana quickly. Her mother stared at her. "You don't want her to marry Bill Lindsay, I hope!" "I do not care whom she marries," returned Diana with amazing spirit. "The important, colossally important thing is that she should marry whom she pleases, when she pleases."