e thought him an oddity who must be treated unconventionally.
He felt savage, but he felt flattered.

"I'll show her what I am!" was his thought.

Yet already, as he begged her to sit down on one of his chintz-covered
chairs, he felt a sort of reluctant pleasure in being with her.

"May I give you some tea?"

Her hazel eyes still seemed to him full of laughter. Evidently she
regarded him as a boy.

"No, thank you! I won't be so cruel as to accept."

"But really, I am--"

"No, no, you aren't. Never mind! We'll be good friends some day. And I
know how artists with tempers hate to be interrupted."

"I hope my temper is not especially bad," said Claude, stiffening with
sudden reserve.

"I think it's pretty bad, but I don't mind. What a dear, funny little
room! But you never sit in it."

"Not often."

"I long to see your very own room. But I'm not going to ask you."

There was a slight pause. Again the ironical light came into her eyes.

"You're wondering quite terribly why I've come here again," she said.
"It's about the yacht."

"I'm really so very sorry that--"

"I know, just as I am when I'm refusing all sorts of invitations that
I'd rather die than accept. Slipshod, but you know what I mean. You hate
the idea. I'm only just going to tell you my party, so that you may
think it over and see if you don't feel tempted."

"I am tempted."

"But you'd rather die than come. I perfectly understand. I often feel
just like that. We shall be very few. Susan Fleet--she's a sort of
chaperon to me; being a married woman, I need a chaperon, of course--Max
Elliot, Mr. Lane, perhaps--if he can't come some charming man whom you'd
delight in--and Charmian Mansfield."

Again there was a pause. Then Heath said:

"It's very, very kind of you to care to have me come."

"I know it is. I am a kind-hearted woman. And now for where we'll go."

"I really am most awfully sorry, but I'm obliged to stick to work."

"We might go down along the Riviera as far as Genoa, and then run over
to Sicily and Tunis."

She saw his eyes beginning to shine.

"Or we might go to the Greek Islands and Smyrna and Constantinople. It's
rather early for Constantinople, though, but perfect for Egypt. We could
leave the yacht at Alexandria--"

"I'm very sorry, Mrs. Shiffney, and I hope you'll have a splendid
cruise. But I really can't come much as I want to. I have to work."

"When you say that you look all chin! How terribly determined you