24 TWO DIANAS IN ALASKA 



" Good business !" said Ralph admiringly. " Can 

 you see what is working in my mind now?" 



" In your mind now. I see it is coming, taking 

 shape." 



" A face," broke in the shameless Ralph. " Some 

 one's face. Whose?" 



"You must not speak, you blur the colours." 



"The colours!" 



"Yes," the ridiculous woman went on, "it is I, 

 myself, in a rainbow of cloud, purple orange 

 mauve." 



" I say ! Can you really see all that?" 



" And does your imagination dress me in those 

 sweetly Oriental shades, this lovely colour scheme 

 reminiscent of the Old Masters in all the profusion 

 of the National Gallery?" 



" No pigments ever mixed," affirmed the excited 

 Ralph, "could equal the er the er whatever it is 

 you are so sweet as to have divined in my feeling 

 for your charming self." 



" Ralph," persevered the outrageous creature, " I 

 love you. With a love that had seemed impossible 

 in aught but theory. My affections have wandered 

 before, but now It has come ! I have found my 

 ideal." 



" I only meet ideals in dreams," said Ralph ner- 

 vously, trying to hedge a little. 



" We have met in dreams. I know it now. It 

 is you I have been seeking, even whilst I have been 

 following will-o'-the-wisps, mere purple illusionary 

 myths. And now, what is to be done, now that 



