an't you get off and come along on the _D'Estang_? We shan't leave
until eight o'clock. We 're going to try and do up the fleet off Point
Jude. Come on, like a good chap."

"I 'd like to. I will if I can, you bet. I think I can work it. Now
s'long and don't forget to have that Pole shunted out of the country on
the jump."

"I won't. Don't worry; see you later then."

"Right-o, good-bye."

As Armitage hung up the receiver the bell of the house 'phone jingled and
Armitage was summoned to bring out the car in a hurry. When he arrived
under the _porte cochere_, Prince Koltsoff was still talking to Anne in a
corner of the library.

"It is very necessary," he was saying. "The summons is important. It is
even possible I shall not return all night." His agitation seemed
momentarily increasing.

"But, Prince Koltsoff," said Anne, "is it so very important? I hardly
know what to do. I have arranged a box party for the vaudeville at
Freebody to-night--it's distressing."

Koltsoff bowed.

"And I! You cannot suppose I view lightly being away from you to-night!"
He shrugged his shoulders. "The rose-strewn paths are not always for
diplomats. You will know that better in good time, perhaps. But they
are for that all the sweeter while we tread them." He moved very close
to her and she, taking fire from his mood, did not step backward, looking
him in the eyes, pulling slightly at the front of her skirt. In the very
web of a mood which she felt bordered on surrender to the masculine
personality of the man before her, she admitted a thrill, which she never
before had recognized. The blood mounted swiftly to her temples and she
straightened and threw her head back with lips parted and hot. His face
came so close to hers that she felt his hot breath.

"Are you sorry for this afternoon?" he asked caressingly.

"Yes," her voice was a half whisper.

His arms were raising to take her, when the voice of Sara Van Valkenberg
came to their ears, with an effect very much like a cold stream upon a
bar of white hot steel.

"Anne, oh, Anne dearie, did you know the car was waiting for Prince
Koltsoff?" She appeared in the doorway to find Anne turning over a
magazine and the Prince adjusting his coat. "I beg pardon, but you said
Prince Koltsoff was in a hurry. I thought you did n't know the car had
arrived."

"We--I didn't," Anne smiled thinly. "Thank you."

They moved to the veranda, where Anne and Sara stood wit