wung along beside him
with that quick, buoyant step so characteristic of a spirit ever
undaunted, saluting the others on the terrace with high-lifted racquet.

"Nobody won," she said. "Come on, Alice, if you're going to scrub before
luncheon. Thank you, Louis; I've had a splendid game--" She stretched
out a frank hand to him, going, and the tips of her fingers just brushed
his.

His sister gave him a tragic look, which he ignored, and a little later
luncheon was on and Cameron garrulous, and Querida his own gentle,
expressive, fascinating self, devotedly receptive to any woman who was
inclined to talk to him or to listen.

That evening Neville said to his sister: "There's a train at midnight; I
don't think I'll stay over--"

"Why?"

"I want to be in town early."

"Why?"

"The early light is the best."

"I thought you'd stopped painting for a while."

"I have, practically. There's one thing I keep on with, in a desultory
sort of way--"

"What is it?"

"Oh, nothing of importance--" he hesitated--"that Is, it may be
important. I can't be sure, yet."

"Will you tell me what it is?"

"Why, yes. It's a portrait--a study--"

"Of whom, dear?"

"Oh, of nobody you know--"

"Is it a portrait of Valerie West?"

"Yes," he said, carelessly.

There was a silence; in the starlight his shadowy face was not clearly
visible to his sister.

"Are you leaving just to continue that portrait?"

"Yes. I'm interested in it."

"Don't go," she said, in a low voice.

"Don't be silly," he returned shortly.

"Dear, I am not silly, but I suspect you are beginning to be. And over a
model!"

"Lily, you little idiot," he laughed, exasperated; "what in the world is
worrying you?"

"Your taking that girl to the St. Regis. It isn't like you."

"Good Lord! How many girls do you suppose I've taken to various places?"

"Not many," she said, smiling at him. "Your reputation for gallantries
is not alarming."

Ho reddened. "You're perfectly right. That sort of thing never appealed
to me."

"Then why does it appeal to you now?"

"It doesn't. Can't you understand that this girl is entirely
different--"

"Yes, I understand. And that is what worries me."

"It needn't. It's precisely like taking any girl you know and like--"

"Then let me know her--if you mean to decorate-public places with her."

They looked at one another steadily.

"Louis," she said, "this pretty Valerie is not your sister's sort, or
you wouldn't h