"Why, of course," was the answer.

"Is Miss Rosser--is she hard up, by any chance?" asked Lawrence.

"Good Lord, no!" exclaimed Mark. "My dear fellow, you've got quite a
wrong impression. Hard up! You've only to see her."

"No doubt," suggested Lawrence, "you have had numerous opportunities."

"Oh well," said Mark, with a shrug, "she was on her lonesome and so was
I at the time. It was just before I went to Yorkshire, you know.
Carrissima was in Devonshire and I was kicking my heels in idleness at
Duffield's."

"It really was rather too bad," remarked Phoebe, "to go there this
evening, considering that you were engaged to dine with us. Wasn't it,
Carrissima?"

"Oh, it was shameful of you, Mark!" cried Carrissima, with a laugh.

"You understand how it was," he explained, taking a chair by her side.
"I didn't mean to stay ten minutes. I thought I could get there and
back comfortably in a taxi, and so I should, but----"

"The temptation proved too strong for you," suggested Lawrence.

"I don't know what you mean by 'temptation,'" retorted Mark, while
Phoebe tried to catch her husband's eye. "Bridget was most awfully
pleased to see me. She had a fit of the blues for some reason or