The girl's first sensation was relief, then self-reproach, quite forgetting that if Mrs. Sprowl's violent emotions had made that redoubtable old woman ill, they had also thoroughly fatigued the victim of her ill-temper and made her very miserable. She wrote a perfunctory note of regret and civil inquiry and dispatched it, then surrendered herself to the ministrations of her maid. The luxury of dining alone for the first time in months, appealed to her. She decided that she was not to be at home to anybody. Langly Sprowl called about six, and was sent away. Strelsa, curled up on a divan, could hear the staccato racket that his powerful racing-car made in the street outside. The informality of her recent host aboard the _Yulan_ did not entirely please her. She listened to his departure with quiet satisfaction. Although it was not her day, several people came and went. Flowers from various smitten youths arrived; orchids from Sprowl; nothing from Quarren. Then for nearly two hours she slept where she lay and awakened laughing aloud at something Quarren had been saying in her dream. But what it was she could not recollect. At eight her maid came and hooked her into a comfortable and beloved second-year gown; dinner was announced; she descended the stairway in solitary state, still smiling to herself at Quarren's forgotten remark, and passed by the library just as the telephone rang there. It may have been a flash of clairvoyance--afterward she wondered exactly what it was that made her say to her maid very confidently: "That is Mr. Quarren. I'll speak to him." It was Mr. Quarren. The amusing coincidence of her dream and her clairvoyance still lingering in her mind, she went leisurely to the telephone and said: "I don't understand how I knew it was you. And I'm not sure why I came to the 'phone, because I'm not at home to anybody. But _what_ was it you said to me just now?" "When?" "A few minutes ago while I was asleep?" "About eight o'clock?" She laughed: "It happened to be a few minutes before eight. How did you know that? I believe you did speak to me in my dream. Did you?" [Illustration: "Strelsa, curled upon a divan ... listened to his departure with quiet satisfaction."] "I did." "Really?" "I said something aloud to you about eight o'clock." "How odd! Did you know I was asleep? But you couldn't----" "No, of course not. I was merely thinking of you." "You were--you happened to be thinking of _me_? And you said something aloud about me?" "About you--and _to_ you." "How delightfully interesting! What was it, please?" "Oh, I was only talking nonsense." "Won't it bear repetition?" "I'm afraid not." "Mr. Quarren! How maddening! I'm dying with curiosity. I dreamed that you said something very amusing to me and I awoke, laughing; but now I simply cannot recollect what it was you said." "I'll tell you some day." "Soon? Would you tell me this evening?" "How can I?"