Neville stood stock-still before the canvas.  The picture promised well; it was really beautiful—­the combined result of several outdoor studies now being cleverly worked up.  But Ogilvy’s pictures never kept their promise.

[Illustration:  “Neville stood stock-still before the canvas.”]

“Also,” observed Rita, reproachfully, “I posed en plein air for those rainbow sketches of his—­and though it was a lonely cove with a cunningly secluded little crescent beach, I was horribly afraid of somebody coming—­and besides I got most cruelly sun-burned—­”

“Rita!  You said you enjoyed that excursion!” exclaimed Ogilvy, with pathos.

“I said it to flatter that enormous vanity of yours, Sam.  I had a perfectly wretched time.”

“What sort of a time did you have last evening?” inquired Neville, turning from the picture.

“Horrid.  Everybody ate too much, and Valerie spooned with a new man—­I don’t remember his name.  She went out in a canoe with him and they sang ‘She kissed him on the gangplank when the boat moved out.’”

Neville, silent, turned to the picture once more.  In a low rapid voice he indicated to Ogilvy where matters might be differently treated, stepped back a few paces, nodded decisively, and turned again to Rita: 

“I’ve been waiting for Miss West,” he said.  “Have you any reason to think that she might not keep her appointment this morning?”

“She had a headache when we got home,” said Rita.  “She stayed with me last night.  I left her asleep.  Why don’t you ring her up.  You know my number.”

“All right,” said Neville, shortly, and went out.

When he first tried to ring her up the wire was busy.  It was a party wire, yet a curious uneasiness set him pacing the studio, smoking, brows knitted, until he decided it was time to try again.

This time he recognised her distant voice:  “Hello—­hello! Is that you, Mr. Neville?”

“Valerie!”

“Oh, it is you, Kelly?  I hoped you would call me up.  I knew it must be you!”

“Yes, it is.  What the deuce is the matter?  Are you ill?”

“Oh, dear, no.’”

“What, then?”

[Illustration:  “When he first tried to ring her up the wire was busy.”]

“I was so sleepy, Kelly.  Please forgive me.  We had such a late party—­and it was daylight before I went to bed.  Please forgive me; won’t you?”

“When I called you a few minutes ago your wire was busy.  Were you conversing?”

“Yes.  I was talking to Jose Querida.”

“H’m!”

“Jose was with us last evening....  I went canoeing with him.  He just called me up to ask how I felt.”

“Hunh!”

“What?”

“Nothing.”

“Are you annoyed, Louis?”

“No!”

“Oh, I thought it sounded as though you were irritated.  I am so ashamed at having overslept.  Who told you I was here?  Oh, Rita, I suppose.  Poor child, she was more faithful than I. The alarm clock woke her and she was plucky enough to get up—­and I only yawned and thought of you, and I was so sleepy!  Are you sure you do forgive me?”