"Poor Léonie," breathed Diana.
Mrs. Wilbur shrugged her shoulders. "I shall be lucky if she doesn't tell me she has decided to marry Bill Lindsay and stay here." The lady laughed and looked at her husband. "I should have to invite them to take their wedding trip on the yacht, for I can't let her go until she has shown some one else how to do my hair."
"Let her teach me, immediately, to-day," said Diana quickly.
Her mother stared at her. "You don't want her to marry Bill Lindsay, I hope!"
"I do not care whom she marries," returned Diana with amazing spirit. "The important, colossally important thing is that she should marry whom she pleases, when she pleases."
Mrs. Wilbur continued to stare while her husband's closed eyes opened and he also regarded Diana as she stood up, her hands clenched.
"That was Helen Loring's creed," said Mrs. Wilbur dryly. "There is a better one. Don't forget that."
The girl's head drooped and the roses faded.
Ten minutes later she went down the awning-guarded steps at the yacht's side, and entered the waiting boat with its shining brasses and natty, white-uniformed sailors, to go ashore.