“You’re a dear.”  Bella came back from the door.  “Look here, Kit, you know Jim pretty well.  Don’t you think he looks ill?  Thinner?”

“He’s a wreck,” I said soberly.  “You have a lot to answer for, Bella.”

Bella went over to the cheval glass and looked in it.  “I avoid him all I can,” she said, posing.  “He’s awfully funny; he’s so afraid I’ll think he’s serious about you.  He can’t realize that for me he simply doesn’t exist.”

Well, I took Aunt Selina, and about two o’clock, while I was in my first sleep, I woke to find her standing beside me, tugging at my arm.

“There’s somebody in the house,” she whispered.  “Thieves!”

“If they’re in they’ll not get out tonight,” I said.

“I tell you, I saw a man skulking on the stairs,” she insisted.

I got up ungraciously enough, and put on my dressing gown.  Aunt Selina, who had her hair in crimps, tied a veil over her head, and together we went to the head of the stairs.  Aunt Selina leaned far over and peered down.

“He’s in the library,” she whispered.  “I can see a light.”

The lust of battle was in Aunt Selina’s eye.  She girded her robe about her and began to descend the stairs cautiously.  We went through the hall and stopped at the library door.  It was empty, but from the den beyond came a hum of voices and the cheerful glow of fire light.  I realized the situation then, but it was too late.

“Then why did you kiss her in the dining room?” Bella was saying in her clear, high tones.  “You did, didn’t you?”

“It was only her hand,” Jim, desperately explaining.  “I’ve got to pay her some attention, under the circumstances.  And I give you my word, I was thinking of you when I did it.”  The wretch!

Aunt Selina drew her breath in suddenly.

“I am thinking of marrying Reggie Wolfe.”  This was Bella, of course.  “He wants me to.  He’s a dear boy.”

“If you do, I will kill him.”

“I am so very lonely,” Bella sighed.  We could hear the creak of Jim’s shirt bosom that showed that he had sighed also.  Aunt Selina had gripped me by the arm, and I could hear her breathing hard beside me.

“It’s only Jim,” I whispered.  “I—­I don’t want to hear any more.”

But she clutched me firmly, and the next thing we heard was another creak, louder and—­

“Get up!  Get up off your knees this instant!” Bella was saying frantically.  “Some one might come in.”

“Don’t send me away,” Jim said in a smothered voice.  “Every one in the house is asleep, and I love you, dear.”

Aunt Selina swallowed hard in the darkness.

“You have no right to make love to me,” Bella.  “It’s—­it’s highly improper, under the circumstances.”

And then Jim:  “You swallow a camel and stick at a gnat.  Why did you meet me here, if you didn’t expect me to make love to you?  I’ve stood for a lot, Bella, but this foolishness will have to end.  Either you love me—­or you don’t.  I’m desperate.”  He drew a long, forlorn breath.