"Good! I shan't need to write! Please 'phone again, Mums, and explain that I don't feel as if I could see Tony till after the theatre. He may come to my dressing-room a few minutes then, if he likes. You can bring him in. I won't be alone with him for an instant! Tell him that I talked with Garth, who's inclined to accept. But I left it to him--Tony--to make matters clear, and he must telephone Garth for an appointment at the Belmore--not the Waldorf." "Severance to go to Garth! He'll refuse----" "Then the whole thing is off!" Marise threw out her arms in a gesture of exasperation. "He can take the offer or leave it." Mary said no more, but flew to the 'phone in her own room, with the door shut between. Presently she came back. "Tony has consented," she announced. "Another proof of his great love!" * * * * * Never had Lord Severance felt that he appeared to less advantage than when he was shown into the Bounder's sitting-room at the Belmore Hotel. He held himself very straight, however, and was every inch an Ancient Greek, if not an English earl. Garth had been engaged in writing a letter and puffing smoke over it from a meerschaum pipe some shades browner than his face. At sight of Severance, and the sound of his name deformed by a page-boy, the big man rose, topping his tall guest in height and erectness. "Well?" was his only greeting, as the door closed. He pushed a box of cigarettes across the table. "Those are the smokes you prefer, I believe." "Thanks. I have my own. And my own matches." "All right." Garth continued to puff at his pipe. "You have seen Miss Sorel, I understand." "That is so." "She--or rather Mrs. Sorel--'phoned me that--er--though you'd had some conversation, the--affair hadn't been entirely explained to you. That's as it should be. It's my business, and my place, to explain it." "Fire away. Do you want to sit down?" "I prefer to stand." "My sentiments!" Severance lit a cigarette, and took some time in the process. "It's rather a long story," he drawled, not with a conscious desire to put on airs, but because his wasn't an easy task, with that bounder's yellow eyes pinning him down, never off his face for a second. "I'm afraid, to make you understand and prevent your doing an injustice to Miss Sorel, I'll have to bore you, in beginning, with a short résumé of my personal history." "Spit it out. Though you needn't fear my doing that lady an injustice. It would take something worse than a lack of tact on your part, or any man's, to make me such a fool." "Glad you feel so about it" "So am I. Shoot!"