part in the plan as soon as he saw
its true nature. In spite of himself Derek began to think of the lad as
of one who had sprung to his help in a moment of need, and to whom he
was indebted for a service. Not until Diane ceased speaking was he able
to brush this absurd impression away, in the knowledge that Dorothea,
who should have arrived nearly two hours ago, was still out in the dark.
That, for the moment, was the one fact to which everything else was
subordinate.

"I can't understand it," he said, nervously. "If they left New York by
six, or even seven, they should have been here by eleven at the latest.
That would have given them time for slow going or taking a circuitous
route."

He rose nervously from his seat, interviewed the clerk at the desk, went
out on the terrace, listened in the silence, walked restlessly up and
down, and, returning to Diane, enumerated the different possibilities
that would reasonably account for the delay. Glad of this preoccupation,
since it diverted thought from their more personal relations, she
pointed out the wisdom of accepting whatever explanation was least grave
until they knew the certainty. When he had gone out several times more,
to listen on the terrace, he came back, and, resuming his seat, said,
brusquely:

"You look tired. You ought to get some rest."

The tone of intimate care reached Diane's heart more directly than words
of greater import.

"I would," she said, simply--"that is, I'd go to my room if I thought
you'd be kind to Dorothea when she came."

"And _don't_ you think so?"

"I think you'd want to be," she smiled, "if you knew how."

"But I shouldn't know how?"

"You see, it's a situation that calls directly for a woman; and you're
so essentially a man. When Dorothea arrives, she won't be a headstrong,
runaway girl; she'll be a poor little terrified child, frightened to
death at what she has done, and wanting nothing so much as to creep
sobbing into her mother's arms and be comforted. If you could only--"

"I'll do anything you tell me."

"It's no use telling; you have to know. It's a case in which you must
act by instinct, and not by rule of thumb."

In her eagerness to have something to say which would keep conversation
away from dangerous themes, she spoke exhaustively on the subject of
parental tact, holding well to the thread of her topic until she
perceived that he was not so much listening to what she said as thinking
of her. But she had ga