"The fact of it is," I groaned, "we are both in love with you." She leaned back in her chair and looked at us for a moment. I think she realised that I had spoken the truth. "Then all I can say," she murmured, "is that you are better actors than I thought you were--and greater dears." "We are wandering from the subject," I said firmly. "I propose that we apply to Mr. Mephistopheles Thomson for a time limit. I should think----" That is just as far as I got in my daring proposal. I sat with my mouth unbecomingly open and a fatuous look of astonishment upon my face. My two companions also were stricken dumb. Arrived apparently from nowhere, neat, inconspicuous and unobtrusive, Mr. Thomson paused before our table and greeted us with pleasing cordiality. "Congratulations to all of you," he said, as he drew up a chair and seated himself. "I was at the Parthenon to-night. If Naida Modeschka's performance was the most wonderful, yours was certainly the most pleasing item upon the programme." "We have improved, I think," Rose admitted modestly. "Nice frocks do make so much difference." "And good food," Leonard murmured. "And no anxieties," I ventured. "Apropos of which," the newcomer enquired, "how goes our bargain? Do you want your souls back again?" "If you've quite finished with them," Rose confessed. "We should hate to seem ungrateful, but so far as we are concerned all our ambitions are satisfied." "We are earning twice as much as we spend," Leonard pointed out. "And we could book up for two years," I put in. Mr. Thomson, who upon his arrival had made mystic signs to a waiter, watched the champagne being poured into our glasses. We were not overcareful in the matter of our expenditure, but champagne was the one luxury we denied ourselves except on special occasions. "You disappoint me," our patron confessed. Rose leaned forward across the table. She spoke quickly, almost tumultuously. "Don't think us ungrateful," she begged. "We are not. We often think of that wretched night at Cromer when you became our good angel. Many and many a time since we have blessed your name." Mr. Thomson bowed. "Ours was a bargain," he said, "and you have fulfilled your share of it. My disappointment springs from another cause. I have pictured you in my mind as children of the land of Adventure." "We have lifted the curtain," I ventured to remind him.