e said. "But--don't you think perhaps Muriel
wouldn't mind taking care of him for me if I took care of you for her?"

Nick broke into a laugh. "Excellent, my child! Most ingenious! Jim and
Muriel are fast allies. But--Jim is not the only person you would leave
behind. You ought to consider that before you get too obsessed by this
enchanting idea. It's pretty beastly, you know, to feel that half the
world stretches between you and--someone you might at any moment develop
a pressing desire to see."

Olga frowned at him. "What are you driving at, Nick?"

"I'm only indicating the obvious," said Nick.

"No, you're not, dear. You're hinting things."

"In that case," said Nick, "you are at liberty to treat me with the
contempt I deserve. Look here! We won't talk about this any more to-day.
The subject is too indigestible. We'll sleep on it, and see what we
think of it to-morrow."

"You're not going to write to Muriel to-night?" asked Olga.

"Not to-night. They've given me a week to make up my mind."

"And when would you have to go?"

"Some time towards the end of next month, or possibly the beginning of
October. But as we're not going," said Nick, "I move that the discussion
be postponed."

He smiled into her eyes, a baffling, humorous smile, and rose.

"But it was a ripping idea of yours," he said. "I'm quite grateful to
you for mentioning it. There are some chocolates in the hall for you.
Don't give them all to Violet, charm she never so wisely."

"Oh, Nick, you darling! Fancy your remembering me! Do let's have some at
once!"

They went indoors together with something of the air of conspirators,
and in the close companionship of her hero Olga managed to forget that
she had so recently been driven to another man for protection. In fact,
the interview in the surgery, with the episode that had preceded it, was
completely crowded out of her mind by this new and dazzling idea that
had flashed so suddenly into her brain, and which seemed already to have
altered the course of her life.

Many and startling were the visions that filled her sleeping hours that
night but each one of them served but to impress upon her the same
thing. When she arose in the morning she told herself with a little
shiver of sheer excitement that the gates of the world were opening to
her, and that soon she would actually behold those wonders of which till
then she had only dreamed.

CHAPTER X

THE DOOR

When remembrance of the