" I laughed.

"He didn't. He never loved her. I--you see, you put such horrid thoughts
into my head that--that I just mentioned her name when he said
to-night--oh, when he said the usual things, about never having cared
seriously for anyone until he saw me. Only--it seems treacherous to call
them '_usual_' because--when you love a man you feel that the things he
says can never have been said before, in the same way, by any other man
to any other woman."

"Only perhaps by the same man to another woman," I mocked at her, trying
to act as if I were teasing in fun.

"Lisa, you _can_ be hateful sometimes!" she cried.

"It's only for your good, if I'm hateful now," I said. "I don't want to
have you disappointed, when it's too late. I want you to keep your eyes
open, and see exactly where you're going. It's the truest thing ever
said that 'love is blind.' You can't deny that you're in love with Ivor
Dundas."

"I don't deny it," she answered, with a proud air which would, I
suppose, have made Ivor want to kiss her.

"And you didn't deny it to him?"

"No, I didn't. But thanks to you, I put him upon a kind of probation. I
wish I hadn't, now. I wish I'd shown that I trusted him entirely. I know
he deserves to be trusted; and to-morrow I shall tell him--"

"I don't think I should commit myself any further till day after
to-morrow," said I drily. "Indeed, you couldn't if you wanted to, unless
you wrote or wired. You won't see him to-morrow."

"Yes, I shall," she contradicted me, opening those big hazel eyes of
hers, that looked positively black with excitement. "He's going to the
Duchess of Glasgow's bazaar, because I said I should most likely be
there: and I will go--"

"But he won't."

"How can you know anything about it?"

"I do know, everything. And I'll tell you what I know, if you'll promise
me two things."

"What things?"

"That you won't ask me how I found out, and that you'll swear never to
give me away to anybody."

"Of course I wouldn't 'give you away,' as you call it. But--I'm not sure
I want you to tell me. I have faith in Ivor. I'd rather not hear stories
behind his back."

"Oh, very well, then, go to the Duchess's to-morrow," I snapped, "and
wear your prettiest frock to please Ivor, when just about that time
he'll be arriving in Paris to keep a very particular engagement with
Maxine de Renzie."

Di grew suddenly pale, and her eyes looked violet instead of black. "I
don't believe he's going to P