DIPLOMACY Waymark had a good deal of frank talk with himself before meeting Ida again on the Sunday.

Such conversation was, as we know, habitual.

Under the circumstances, however, he felt that it behoved him to become especially clear on one or two points; never mind what course he might ultimately pursue, it was always needful to him to dissect his own motives, that he might at least be acting with full consciousness.
One thing was clear enough.

The fiction of a mere friendship between himself and Ida was impossible to support.

It had been impossible under the very different circumstances of a year ago, and was not likely to last a week, now that Ida could so little conceal how her own feelings had changed.