d
like me to begin?"

"Perhaps," he suggested, drawing up a small chair and seating himself
nearer her, "it would be best to settle the business part of our
arrangement first. You must tell me frankly if there is anything in what
I propose that you don't find satisfactory."

"I'm sure there won't be," Diane murmured, faintly, with a feeling akin
to shame that any one should be offering to pay for such feeble services
as hers. She was thankful that the winter dusk, creeping into the room,
hid the surging of the hot color in her face, as Derek talked of sums of
money and dates of payment. She did her best to pretend to give him her
attention, but she gathered nothing from what he said. If she had any
coherent thought at all, it was of the greatness, the force, the
authority, of one who could control her future, and dictate her acts,
and prescribe her duties, with something like the power of a god. In
times past she would have tried to weave her spell around this strong
man, in sheer wantonness of conquest, as Vivian threw her enchantments
over Merlin; now she was conscious only of a strange willingness to
submit to him, to take his yoke, and bow down under it, serving him as
master.

She was glad when he ended, leaving her free to rise and say his
arrangements suited her exactly. She had promised to join Miss Lucilla
van Tromp and Mrs. Eveleth at tea, and perhaps he would come with her.

"No, I'll run away now," he said, accompanying her to the door, "if
you'll be good enough to make my excuses to Lucilla. But one word more!
You asked me when you had better begin. I should say as soon as you can.
As I may leave for Rio de Janeiro at any time, it would be well for
things to be in working order before I go."

So it was settled, and as she departed he opened the door for her and
held out his hand. But once more the little black muff came into play,
and Diane walked out as she had come in, with no other salutation than a
dignified inclination of the head.

Derek closed the door behind her and stood with his hand on the knob. He
took the gentle rebuke like a man.

"I'm a cad," he said to himself. "I'm a cad."

Returning to his former place on the hearth, he remained long, gazing
into the dying embers, and rehearsing the points of the interview in his
mind. The gloaming closed around him, and he took pleasure in the fancy
that she was still sitting there--silent, patient, erect, with that
pinched look of privation so