“But I have no idea that Rachael is seriously considering a divorce,” Warren said slowly.  “Why should she?  She has no cause!”

“She thinks she has!” Magsie said triumphantly.

“She isn’t the sort of woman to think things without reason,” Warren said.

“She doesn’t have to think,” Magsie assured him with the same air of satisfaction; “she knows!  Everyone knows how much you and I have been together:  everyone knows that you backed ’The Bad Little Lady’—­”

“Everyone has no right to draw conclusions from that!” Warren said.

Magsie shrugged her shoulders.

“And what do we care, Greg?  I don’t care what the world thinks as long as I have you!  Let them have the letters, let them buzz—­ we’ll be miles away, and we won’t care!  And in a year or two, Greg, we’ll come back, and they’ll all flock about us—­you’ll see!  That’s the advantage of a name like the Gregory name!  Why, who among them all dropped Clarence on Paula’s account, or Rachael on Clarence’s?”

“Your going to see her has certainly—­complicated things,” Warren said reflectively.

“On the contrary,” Magsie said confidently, “it has cleared things up.  It had to come, Greg; every time you and I talked about it we brought the inevitable nearer!  Why, you weren’t ever at home.  Could that have gone on forever?  You had no home, no wife, no freedom.  I was simply getting sick of the whole thing!  Now at least we’re all open and aboveboard; all we’ve got to do is quietly set the wheels in motion!”

“Well, I’ll tell you what must be the first step, Magsie,” Warren said after thought; “I’m going home now to see Rachael.  I’ll talk the whole thing over with her.  Then I’ll come to see you.”

“Positively?” asked Magsie.

“Positively.”

“You won’t just telephone that you’re delayed, Greg, and leave me to wonder and worry?” the girl asked wistfully.  “I’ll wait until any hour!” He looked at her kindly, with a gentleness of aspect new in their relationship.

“No, dear.  It’s nearly three now.  I’ll come take you to tea at, say, half-past four.  I am operating again to-night, at nine, and some time I’ve got to get in a bath and some sleep.  But there’ll be time for tea.”

Magsie chattered gayly, but Warren was almost silent as they gathered together their belongings, and went out to the street.  He called her another cab and beckoned to the man who was waiting with his own car.

“In a few months, perhaps,” said Magsie at parting, “when he’s all tired and cross, I’ll make him coffee at home, and see that he gets his rest and quiet whenever he needs it!”

She did not like his answer.

“Rachael’s a wonder at that sort of thing,” he said.  Magsie had not heard him speak so of his wife for months.  “In fact, she spoils me,” he added.

“Spoils you by leaving you alone in this hot town for six months out of every year?” Magsie laughed lightly.  “Good-bye, dear!  At half-past four?”