"Oh, if it was ever so! You ought to make Daphne wear one of those thin tulle veils to match her hat. They're jolly--you can get them at that shop close to me." "Oh, she needn't, she's going to be manicured, and she's coming back here for me in a quarter of an hour." "Good-bye, darling," said Daphne, standing up, and she made a kind of face, which Valentia understood to mean the word Foster. "What is the child playing at?" said Harry. "If you two have a code it would be as well to learn it." "All right," said Valentia to Daphne. Harry walked with her to the door and she ran out, saying, "I won't be long." "She wants Foster, the baby Guardsman," explained Valentia. "Oh, why didn't you say so at first? Of course I suppose they've arranged it. At any rate it's as good as done. Then there must be one more woman. But never mind now." Harry sat down beside her and said, in a different voice--he had a very good voice, especially when he spoke caressingly-- "How interesting you are! One of your eyebrows is a little thicker than the other." "Oh, Harry!..." "How are we all going to get home that evening?" "What do you think?" she asked. "Well, it's like this, as you may say. We'll all meet at the Ritz and dine there. Good. Then we drive in separate vehicles to here, and have some music. Then I see you both home, and--well, I think that's all. It's not much." "I don't quite like the way Lady Walmer looks at you, Harry." "Oh, Valentia! If it comes to that, how do you fondly imagine I shall like the way Rathbone is sure to look at you?" "Oh, Harry! Why, he's tattooed!" "You see," went on Harry seriously, "I really am making a dash for it about Daphne. She'll really be happy with Van Buren, and _I_ shall be ever so much happier,--with Van Buren and everyone else,--because, through Daphne being always with you, I never see you alone for one single second." "Oh, you exaggerate, Harry!" "I know I do. I don't see you for half a second." "Romer has been so nice lately," she answered gently. "Very amusing, I suppose?" "But--I often think how very nice he really is." "Oh, don't say that, even in fun. I'm coming to stay with you in the summer--at the Green Gate--unless you'd rather ask Rathbone instead." "Or unless you'd rather go yachting with the Walmers," she remarked. "They have a daughter, haven't they?" "Oh, Valentia, be anything but blasphemous!..." "Really?... Oh, Harry!" "Do you mean to say you need my saying it?" "No." "Then, I will. Valentia, I--" She got up and opened the door so that Daphne should not have to ring when she returned. When the two sisters left a few minutes later, Harry sat down again as if in deep thought and lighted a cigarette. His servant came in. "Please, sir, Mr. Van Buren is at the telephone." "Oh well, tell him ... Oh no--, all right--I'll go." CHAPTER III VAN BUREN