ed. I should be too, if I didn't have a
sort of feeling that you'd have been happier with me. P'raps I'm a cad
to tell you, but it's hit me rather hard."

He broke off, breathing heavily. She drew nearer to him, stroking his
shoulder softly with her free hand. "Dear Noel, I love you for telling
me," she said. "I feel dreadfully unworthy of your love. But I'm very,
very grateful for it. You know that, don't you? And I--I'd marry you if
my heart would let me, but,--dear, it won't."

He forced a laugh. "I know you would. That's just the damnable part of
it. Life is an infernal swindle, isn't it? It's brimful of this sort of
thing." He stood up with a jerk, and pulled himself together. "Forgive
me, Olga! I didn't mean to let off steam in this way. I'm a selfish
hound. Forget it! Only promise me that if you ever want a friend to turn
to, you'll turn to me."

"Indeed I will!" she said very earnestly.

He held her hands very tightly for a moment and let them go; but they
clung to his. She looked up at him appealingly.

"Noel," she said, with slight hesitation, "please--for my sake--be
friendly with Max!"

He drew back instantly with a boyish gesture of distaste. "Oh, all
right," he said.

She saw that he would not endure pressure on this point, and refrained
from pursuing it; but his reception of her request was a disappointment
to her. Somehow she had come to expect greater things from Noel.

The rest of the evening slipped away magically. She danced a great many
dances without any sense of fatigue; but when it was all over at last a
great weariness descended upon her. She drove back with Max, so utterly
spent that she could hardly speak.

Yet, as they entered Nick's bungalow, she roused herself and turned to
him with her own quick smile. "It's been the happiest evening of my
life," she said.

"Really!" said Max.

She slipped the cloak from her shoulders and went close to him. The love
in her eyes gave them a glory that was surely not of earth. She took him
by the shoulders, those clear, shining eyes raised to his.

"I'm afraid you've had a dull time," she said. "I hope you haven't hated
it."

"Not at all," said Max.

Yet a hint of cynicism still lingered about him as he said it. He stood
passive within her hold.

She pressed a little nearer to him. "Max, you didn't mind my giving all
those dances to Noel? You--understood?"

He began to smile. "My dear girl, yes!"

"You are sure?" she insisted.

He to