"Thank you. . . . I mean, do you wish to see me now? Because I'm very much occupied in trying to go to sleep."
"Yes, I wish to see you at once."
"Particularly?"
"Very particularly."
"Oh, if it's as serious as that, you alarm me. I'm afraid to come."
"I'm afraid to have you. But please come."
He heard her laugh to herself; then her clear, amused voice: "What are you going to say to me if I come out?"
"Something dreadful! Hurry!"
"Oh, if that's the case I'll hurry," she returned, and a moment later the door opened and she emerged in a breezy flutter of silvery ribbons and loosened ruddy hair.
She was dressed in some sort of delicate misty stuff that alternately clung and floated, outlining or clouding her glorious young figure as she moved with leisurely free-limbed grace across the hall to meet him.