"Because you are going South and there are three restless weeks ahead of me----" This time he could hear her clear, far laughter: "What has _my_ going to Florida to do with _your_ restlessness?" "Your very question irrevocably links cause and effect----" "Don't be absurd, Mr. Quarren!" "Absurdity is the badge of all our Guild----" "What Guild do _you_ belong to?" "The associated order of ardent suitors----" "Mr. Quarren! You are becoming ridiculous; do you know it?" "No, _I_ don't realise it, but they say all the rest of the world considers suitors ridiculous----" "Do you expect me to listen to such nonsense at such an hour in the morning?" "It's half past twelve; and my weak solution of nonsense is suitable to the time of day----" "Am I to understand that the solution becomes stronger as the day advances?" "Exactly; the solution becomes so concentrated and powerful that traces of common-sense begin to appear----" "I didn't notice any last night." "Van Dyne interfered." "Poor Mr. Van Dyne. If you'd been civil to him he might have asked you to the dance to-night--if I had suggested it. But you were horridly rude." "I? Rude?" "You're not going to be rude enough to say it was I who behaved badly to him, are you? Oh, the shocking vanity of man! No doubt you are thinking that it was I who, serpent-like, whispered temptation into your innocent ear, and drew you away into a corner, and shoved palms in front of us, and brought silver and fine linen, and rare fruits and sparkling wines; and paid shameless court with an intelligent weather-eye always on the watch for a flouted and justly indignant cavalier!" "Yes," he said, "you did all those things. And now you're trying to evade the results." "What are the results?" "A partly demented young man clamouring to see you at high-noon while the cold cruel cause of his lunacy looks on and laughs." "I'm afraid that young man must continue to clamour," she said, immensely amused at the picture he drew. "How far away is he at this moment?" "In the Legation, a blithering wreck." "Why not in his office frantically immersed in vast business enterprises and cataclysmic speculations?" "I'm rather afraid that if business immerses him too completely he will be found drowned some day." "You promised--_said_ that you were going to begin a vigorous campaign," she reminded him reproachfully. "I asked it of you; and you agreed." "I am beginning life anew--or trying to--by seeking the perennial source of daily spiritual and mundane inspiration----" "Why won't you be serious?" "I am. Were you not the source of my new inspiration? Last night did something or other to me--I am not yet perfectly sure what it was. I want to see you to be sure--if only for a--moment--merely to satisfy myself that you are real----" "Will one moment be enough?" "Certainly." "One second--or half a one?" "Plenty." "Very well--if you promise not to expect or ask for more than that----"