where a piano was, and where there were fewer people. Out of this
room there was a still smaller one with several palms in it, and out of
the palms arising a great bronze reproduction of the Hermes of
Praxiteles. Lady Seagraves playfully called this little room her Pagan
parlour. Here people who knew the house well found their way when they
wanted quiet conversation. There was nobody in it when Miss Langley and
the Dictator arrived. Helena sat down on a sofa with a sigh of relief,
and Ericson sat down beside her.

'What a delightful change from all that awful noise and glare!' said
Helena. 'I am very fond of this little corner, and I think Lady
Seagraves regards it as especially sacred to me.'

'I am grateful for being permitted to cross the hallowed threshold,'
said the Dictator. 'Is this the tutelary divinity?' And he glanced up at
the bronze image.

'Yes,' said Miss Langley; 'that is a copy of the Hermes of Praxiteles
which was discovered at Olympia some years ago. It is the right thing to
worship.'

'One so seldom worships the right thing--at least, at the right time,'
he said.

'I worship the right thing, I know,' she rejoined, 'but I don't quite
know about the right time.'

'Your instincts would be sure to guide you right,' he answered, not
indeed quite knowing what he was talking about.

'Why?' she asked, point blank.

'Well, I suppose I meant to say that you have nobler instincts than most
other people.'

'Come, you are not trying to pay me a compliment? I don't want
compliments; I hate and detest them. Leave them to stupid and
uninteresting men.'

'And to stupid and uninteresting women?'

'Another try at a compliment!'

'No; I felt that.'

'Well, anyhow, I did not entice you in here to hear anything about
myself; I know all about myself.'

'Indeed,' he said straightforwardly, 'I do not care to pay compliments,
and I should never think of wearying you with them. I believe I hardly
quite knew what I was talking about just now.'

'Very well; it does not matter. I want to hear about you. I want to know
all about you. I want you to trust in me and treat me as your friend.'

'But what do you want me to tell you?'

'About yourself and your projects and everything. Will you?'

The Dictator was a little bewildered by the girl's earnestness, her
energy, and the perfect simplicity of her evident belief that she was
saying nothing unreasonable. She saw reluctance and hesitation in his
eyes.

'You