picking up Peter in the Grill-room of the Quadrant," said Lady
Tanagra calmly.

Patricia gasped. "Oh!" she cried.

"Let's call things by their right names," said Lady Tanagra. "At the
present moment you're putting up rather a big fight against your own
inclination, and you are causing yourself a lot of unnecessary
unhappiness. Is it worth it?" she asked.

"One's self-respect is always worth any sacrifice," said Patricia.

"Except when you are in love, and then you take pride in trampling it
under foot."

With this oracular utterance Lady Tanagra departed with a bright nod, a
smile and an insistence that Patricia should not come downstairs.

CHAPTER XIII

A TACTICAL BLUNDER

"I often think," remarked Lady Tanagra as she helped herself a second
time to hors d'oeuvres, "that if Godfrey could only be condensed or
desiccated he would save the world from ennui."

Elton looked up from a sardine he was filleting with great interest and
care; concentration was the foundation of Godfrey Elton's character.

"Does that mean that he is a food or a stimulant?" enquired Patricia,
Elton having returned to his sardine.

Lady Tanagra regarded Elton with thoughtful brow.

"I think," she said deliberately, "I should call him a habit."

"Does that imply that he is a drug upon the market?" retorted Patricia.

Bowen laughed. Elton continued to fillet his sardine.

"You see," continued Lady Tanagra, "Godfrey has two qualities that to a
woman are maddening. The first is the gift of silence, and the second
is a perfect genius for making everyone else feel that they are in the
wrong. Some day he'll fall in love, and then something will snap
and--well, he will give up dissecting sardines as if they were the one
thing in life worthy of a man's attention."

Elton looked up again straight into Lady Tanagra's eyes and smiled.

"Look at him now!" continued Lady Tanagra, "that very smile makes me
feel like a naughty child."

The four were dining in Bowen's sitting-room at the Quadrant, Lady
Tanagra having decided that this would be more pleasant than in the
public dining-room.

"Can you," continued Lady Tanagra, who was in a wilful mood, "can you
imagine Godfrey in love? I don't think any man ought to be allowed to
fall in love until he has undergone an examination as to whether or no
he can say the right thing the right way. No, it takes an Irishman to
make love."

"But an Irishman says what he cannot possibly me