I can take no part, only just--appear." "_Appear!_" Cardiff exclaimed.

"Have you appeared!" "Seven times," Elfrida said simply, but she felt that she was blushing.
Cardiff's anger rose up hotly within him, and strove with his love, and out of it there came a sickening sense of impotency which assailed his very soul.

All his life he had had tangibilities to deal with.

This was something in the air, and already he felt the apprehension of being baffled here, where he wrought for his heart and his future.
"So that is a part of it," he said, with tightened lips.
"I did not know." "Oh, I insisted upon that," Elfrida replied softly.

"I am quite one of them--one of the young ladies of the Peach Blossom Company.