"I don't like that. I may not succeed."

"Listen to me, Charlie. Do you know Arthur Weldon?"

"Slightly; not very well."

"I intend to marry him. He has paid me marked attentions in the past;
but now--he--"

"Wants to slip the leash. Quite natural, my dear."

"He has become infatuated with another girl; a light-headed,
inexperienced little thing who is likely to marry the first man who asks
her. She is very rich--in her own right, too--and her husband will be a
fortunate man."

Mershone stared at her. Then he whistled, took a few turns up and down
the room, and reseated himself.

"Evidently!" he ejaculated, lighting a cigarette without permission and
then leaning back thoughtfully in his chair.

"Charlie," continued Diana, "you may as well marry Louise Merrick and
settle down to a life of respectability. You've a dashing, masterful way
which no girl of her sort can long resist. I propose that you make
desperate love to Louise Merrick and so cut Arthur Weldon out of the
deal entirely. My part of the comedy will be to attract him to my side
again. Now you have the entire proposition in a nutshell."