At lunch time the subject was totally ignored. Mr. Filmer came out of his study, apparently for the very purpose of being excessively pleasant to Harry, and of giving his wife anxious warnings about exhausting herself, and overdoing hospitality, "which, by-the-by," he added, "is as bad a thing as underdoing it. Two days hence, you will not be able to forgive Emma Filmer for the trouble she has taken," he said. "I hope we have not annoyed you much, Henry." "I have calmly borne the upset, because I know this entertainment will be the first and the last of the series." He spoke to hearts already conscious; and Rose said petulantly, "The ball will, of course, be a failure; we have bespoken failure by anticipating it." "I never really wanted it, Rose," said Harry. "That is understandable," she retorted. "Yanna does not dance; neither does she approve of dancing. But all the sensible people are not Puritans, thank heaven! What are such ideas doing in an enlightened age? They ought to be buried with all other fossils of dead thought; and----" "You are going too fast, Rose," corrected Mr. Filmer. "You may scoff at Puritanism, but it is the highest form of life ever yet assumed by the world. Emma, my dear, if that tap, tap, tapping could be arrested this afternoon I should be grateful." Then he bowed to his family, and went back to the Middle Ages. They watched his exit silently, and with admiration, and after it Rose sought the dressmaker, who in some upper chamber was composing a gown she meant to be astonishing and decisive; one that it would be impossible to imitate, or to criticise. Mrs. Filmer, knowing the value of that little sleep which ought to divide the morning from the afternoon, went into seclusion to accept it. Harry wandered about the piazzas smoking, but shivering and anxious, and longing for the hour at which he had told Yanna he would call for her answer. The day, pleasantly chill in the morning, had become damp and gray, and full of the promise of rain. And as he drove through the fallen leaves of the bare woods, and felt the depressing drizzle, he thought of the many lovely days and glorious nights he had let slip; though the question asked at the end of them was precisely the question he wished to ask at the beginning. He wondered if he had missed his hour. He wondered if he had misunderstood Yanna's smiles and attitudes. He lost heart so far that he drove twice past the house ere he felt brave enough to take manfully the possible "No" Yanna might give him. "Men understand so little about women," he thought, "and all her pleasantness may have been mere friendship."