d have thought I'd broken the
ten commandments."

"Couldn't you have pushed up the stroke and got there on time?" asked
Quin, whose army training made him inclined to sympathize with Madam at
this point.

"No, I could not. I am always late. It's a Martel trait--that's why it
infuriates grandmother. But it wasn't any of these things I've been
telling you that caused the real trouble. It was her constant
interference in my private affairs. I am simply sick of being dictated to
about my choice of friends."

"You mean Mr. Phipps?"

She looked at him quickly. "How did you know?"

"Mrs. Ranny told me he was up there, and I guessed there was a shindy."

"I should say there was--for the entire three days he was there! If he
hadn't been big enough to rise above it and ignore grandmother, she would
have succeeded in breaking up one of the most beautiful friendships of my
life."

Quin absently twisted a corner of the corpulent sofa cushion which he
held in his lap, before he asked cautiously:

"What is it you like so much in him. Miss Nell?"

Eleanor curled her feet under her on the sofa, and launched forth on a
favorite theme:

"Well, to begin with, he's the most cosmopolitan man I ever met."

"Cosmopolitan? How do you mean?"

"Awfully sophisticated. A sort of citizen of the world, you know."

"You mean he's traveled a lot, knocked around in queer places, like me?"

"Oh, no; it isn't that. As a matter of fact, he has never been out of
this country. But I mean that, wherever he'd go, he would be at home."

"Yes," Quin admitted, with a grim smile; "that's where he was most of the
time when he was in the army. What else do you like about him?"

"I sha'n't tell you. You are prejudiced, like all the rest. He says that
only an artist can understand an artist."

"Meaning, I suppose, that he understands you?"

"Yes; and I believe I understand him. Of course I don't agree with him in
all his ideas. But then, I've been brought up in such a narrow way that I
know I am frightfully conventional. He is awfully advanced, you know. Why
don't you like him, Quin?"

Numerous concrete and very emphatic reasons sprang to Quin's lips. He
would have liked nothing better than to answer her question fully and
finally; but instead he only smiled at her and said:

"Why, I guess the main reason is because you do."

Eleanor looked at him dubiously: "No," she said; "it's something besides
that. The family have probably filled your ea