ssip, you know. And Diana is charming."

"She's an iceberg!"

"Oh, you have discovered that? Was she wholly unresponsive, then?"

"No," he said, with a touch of anger. "I have never cared for Diana,
except in a friendly way. She amused me for a while when--when I was
wretched. But I never made love to her; not for a moment. Afterward,
why--then----"

"Well; what then?" as he hesitated, growing red again.

"I found she had taken my careless attentions in earnest, and the play
was getting dangerous. So I went abroad."

Louise considered this explanation seriously. She believed he was
speaking the truth, so far as he knew. But at the same time she realized
from her own experience that Arthur might as easily deceive himself as
Diana in his estimate as to the warmth of the devotion he displayed. His
nature was impetuous and ardent. That Diana should have taken his
attentions seriously and become infatuated with the handsome young
fellow was not a matter to cause surprise.

Gradually Louise felt her resentment disappearing. In Arthur's presence
the charm of his personality influenced her to be lenient with his
shortcomings. And his evident desire for a reconciliation found an echo
in her own heart.

Mutual explanations are excellent to clear a murky atmosphere, and an
hour's earnest conversation did much to restore these two congenial
spirits to their former affectionate relations. Of course Louise did not
succumb too fully to his pleadings, for her feminine instinct warned her
to keep the boy on "the anxious seat" long enough to enable him to
appreciate her value and the honor of winning her good graces. Moreover,
she made some severe conditions and put him on his good behavior. If he
proved worthy, and was steadfast and true, why then the future might
reward him freely.

Diana had been making careful plans for her interview with Arthur that
Sunday afternoon. With no futile attempt to deceive herself as to
existent conditions she coldly weighed the chances in her mental scale
and concluded she had sufficient power to win this unstable youth to her
side and induce him to forget that such a person as Louise Merrick ever
existed.

Diana was little experienced in such affairs, it is true. Arthur Weldon
had been her first and only declared admirer, and no one living had
studied his peculiar nature more critically than this observant girl.
Also she knew well her own physical failings. She realized that her
personality