she exclaimed, "how could you possibly accept for me? I'm
not going! No; indeed, I'm not! Neither must you. It's the maddest
project I ever heard of! Whatever made you imagine for one moment that I
would agree to go?"

"Don't be ridiculous, Allegro!" Violet sounded quite unmoved. "Of course
you'll go, unless--" she smiled a trifle maliciously--"you mean me to go
alone, as I certainly shall if you are going to be tiresome about it.
You wouldn't like me to do that, I suppose?"

Olga gazed at her helplessly. "Violet, what am I to say to you? How
could you and I go off for a whole day with that detestable man? Why,
it--it would start everyone talking!"

"My dear, no one will know," said Violet with composure. "Haven't you
sworn to keep it a dead secret? He won't talk and neither shall I. So,
you see, it's all perfectly safe. Not that there would be anything
improper about it in any case. He is as old as you and me put
together,--older I should say."

"Oh, but he's such a fiend!" burst forth Olga. "You said you were going
to give him up only the other night."

"When?" said Violet sharply.

Olga hesitated. It was the first time she had made direct reference to
that midnight episode.

"When did I say that?" insisted Violet.

Half-reluctantly Olga made reply, while Violet leaned forward and
listened intently. "The night before last. You came to my room late,
don't you remember?"

Violet's eyes had a startled look. "Yes?" she breathed. "Yes? What
else?"

Olga looked straight up at her. "Dear, I don't think we need talk about
it, need we? You were not yourself. I think you were half-asleep. You
had been smoking those hateful cigarettes."

"Ah, but tell me!" insisted Violet. "Why did I come to you? What did I
say? Was--was Max there?"

"He came in," faltered Olga. "He--guessed you weren't well. He helped
you back to your own room. Don't you remember?"

"Yes--yes--I remember!" Violet's brows were drawn with the effort; there
was a look of dawning horror in her eyes. "I remember, Allegro!" she
said, speaking rapidly. "He--he was very brutal to me, wasn't he? He
made me tell him where to find the cigarettes, and then--and then--yes,
he took them away. I've hated him ever since." Again that vindictive
note sounded in her voice. "I won't bear brutality from any man," she
said. "Do you know, if I didn't hate him, I believe I should be afraid
of him? I know you are, Allegro."

"Perhaps; a little," Olga admitted.

"A