“I see.” Barbara drew in a deep breath and her eyes were luminous. “Thank you,” she said simply. “I understand better... how I feel. And why I feel that I must find understanding before midnight... before the end of Mardi Gras. Will you... help me?”

She arose from the table and her face was white. She swayed toward him supplicatingly.

“You’re very sure... of what you want?” He caught her in his arms and held her hungrily.

“Very sure,” she responded. “I’m glad that... last night was a fiasco. I’m stronger to-day... know better what I want... surer of myself. I want you to take me.”

Her white face was upturned to his. Her body was soft and pliant beneath the thin silk. Her lips were a gash of scarlet which parted entreatingly.

Frank looked deep into her eyes for a long moment. Her passion communicated itself to him as the sweet warmth of her innocent body enveloped him.

Bending swiftly, he gathered her in his arms and carried her easily into the drawing room and up the broad stairs. Into his room where he deposited her on the same bed she had lain upon the preceding night.

“Take those pajamas off,” he said harshly. “Strip every thread off your body if you’re in earnest about going through with this.”

He drew away from her and stood in the center of the floor. Barbara sat up in the center of the bed and her fingers trembled uncontrollably as she drew off the blouse and untied the wide sash.

Her eyes were fastened on Frank and frenzy lurked there as he flung his shirt to the floor. His magnificent torso bared, the sash came loose, and her pajamas joined his flannels on the floor.

This time she didn’t faint.

She sat upon the bed, unclothed and unashamed. She smiled mistily at Frank, and patted his cheek tenderly.

“And that’s all there is to it?” she asked.

Frank raised himself on one elbow to study her face. “Disappointed?” he asked.

“I don’t know.” Barbara made a vague gesture. “In myself perhaps. Now. Studying my reaction after it’s over. I wasn’t disappointed... a few moments ago.”

“You were glorious.” Frank attempted to draw her down to him. “Stop analyzing your emotions, and enjoy them,” he commanded sternly.

“That? From you?” she asked in wide-eyed surprise. “It was you who taught me to analyze,” she reminded him.

“There are times for analysis, and times for enjoying the moment,” he said petulantly.

“I know of no better time to study myself than right now,” Barbara told him calmly.

“Why now, for heaven’s sake?”

“Technically, I’ve just entered into a new phase of development,” she returned coolly. “Half an hour ago I was a virgin. Now I’m what Cousin Hattie would call a loose woman.”

“Do you feel sinful?”

“No. Only released. That’s the only change I can sense. And... very happy,” she went on, studying her words carefully.

“Happy? Tell me why.”

“Because you’ve shown me that passion without love is much more glamorous in expectancy than in reality,” she told him serenely. “Because I’ve just learned how little passion or sexual giving has to do with love. Because I know now what life can be with love to give meaning to desire.”

“You learned all that from me?” Frank asked the question weakly.

“Yes. The experiment was a huge success.” She smiled at him.

“Experiment? I like that.” His tone said that he didn’t like it at all.

“Wasn’t it an experiment? You were careful to explain in the beginning that you didn’t love me,” Barbara reminded him.

“See here! Where does all this lead to? I feel like a bug impaled on a pin beneath a microscope,” Frank protested.

“All this leads to Sonia,” Barbara said firmly.

“Sonia?”

“Sonia Jenson,” she explained patiently. “Ethel told me you knew her quite well.”

“Sonia Jenson?” Frank’s voice was desperate. “What the devil has she to do with you? What is this? A guessing game?”

“Tell me about Sonia,” Barbara persisted. “And I’ll tell you why I want to know.”

“There’s not much I can tell you about Sonia,” Frank said sullenly. “I don’t know the words you’d understand. She’s almost a nymphomaniac.”

Barbara sat on the bed and quaintly considered his words. The implication disturbed and frightened her. She shrank in horror before a vision of Bob and Sonia which arose before her. Then she thrust her jaw out angrily. If this was true, then it was all the more important to rescue Bob from her. She turned quickly to Frank.

“I want you to take me to Sonia,” she said firmly. “At once.”

“What’s on your mind, dear?” Frank regarded her anxiously. He had heard of women going goofy after the shock of first intercourse.

“Has Ethel told you anything about Bob, the boy I was engaged to for so many years?”

“She told me about some farmer sweetheart, but she swore to me that the affair was all off,” Frank said vehemently. “I made her give me her word that it was out,” he went on plaintively, “for I never intend to interfere with the course of true love.”

“You’re sweet,” Barbara said impulsively. “And you haven’t interfered. You saved it from ruin. I can’t explain,” she went on swiftly, “but having known you has made Bob a hundred times more necessary to me than ever before.”

“I still don’t see where Sonia comes in,” Frank complained.

“Bob followed me here to make up,” Barbara explained. “He arrived Sunday night and telephoned to the Brinkleys. I was out with you and... and he must have been hurt. So he went out and... and got tangled up with Sonia. He... he stayed all night with her.”

“Good God!” Frank sat upright. “Your Bob is a fool,” he said softly. “You’re worth a thousand Sonias.”

“I want... a chance to prove that to Bob, and he’s going to take Sonia to a masked ball to-night. At some Manor.”

“I know,” Frank interjected with quickened interest. “The ball at Brierly Manor. It’s an annual affair. I’m going. So are you and Ethel.”

“I thought if I went to Sonia and explained everything... she might understand,” Barbara said desperately. “Then I... I can go masked too. And if she’ll... if she’ll let me have a chance to win Bob back... to... to show him that I... that I can give him as much as she...”

Barbara’s voice broke.

“Oh! It sounds like a crazy idea,” she cried desperately. “But I have to do something.”

“Nothing of the sort,” Frank contradicted her. “It’s a magnificent plot. Worthy of a correspondence course scenario writer.”

“You’re laughing at me,” Barbara accused in a small voice.

“I never felt less like laughing in my life,” Frank assured her. “I adopted the light tone to keep from bursting into tears. You shall have your chance to vamp your sweetheart... and if the oaf doesn’t crash through I’ll take great personal satisfaction in wringing his neck,” he finished venomously.

“Then you think... Sonia will help me?”

“Not a doubt in the world,” Frank told her cheerfully. “Put it to her straight, and she’ll play along with you. She’s probably getting tired of him already anyway,” he added darkly. “One night is usually her limit.”

“Can I go to see her now?” Barbara asked quickly. “Will you take me?”

“Why not?” Frank moved to the edge of the bed with a sigh. “Picture of a young man practicing self-immolation,” he muttered.

“I could almost love you.” Barbara threw her arms about his neck and pressed her cheek to his.

“Here!” Frank pushed her away determinedly. “You’ll arouse something more than brotherly interest in my bosom if you don’t get some clothes on before embracing me,” he warned gruffly. “Get yourself clad and we’ll seek out the seductive Sonia in her lair.”

Chapter Eighteen

It was late afternoon as Barbara and Frank drove to Sonia’s cottage. Frank seemed very intent on secret thoughts of his own, and Barbara was glad to sit quietly beside him and let the wind blow through her hair.

She felt strengthened and gladdened by the brief intimacy she and Frank had known together. It seemed to her that she marched toward an inevitable and rightful conclusion from out the chaos of Mardi Gras.

Her soul was at peace and her mind at rest. A complacent lassitude seemed to grip her body. Indecision and doubt had been swept away by understanding. From out of the mad turmoil her true self emerged, tranquil and triumphant.

She did not fear the outcome of her impending interview with Sonia. Nor did she shrink from it. In her secret heart she pitied Sonia. Exactly as she pitied Frank. It seemed to her that she was much wiser than they. To-night she would find that which they sought vainly. This was more than a hope; more than a belief; she made of it an actuality which she hugged to her bosom.

As she did not doubt Sonia’s willingness to help her, so she did not doubt her power to draw Bob to her by offering him herself and her new-found passion.

She must not falter nor question. To-night would bring a completion such as she had never dreamed of knowing. She felt strong and ruthless. The strength of aroused passion vied with the dream-love she had carried in her heart for many years, and was augmented by the sharp necessity to rescue Bob from the insidious allure of Sonia.

No. She could not fail. She would not think of failure. She would look forward eagerly to a triumphant fulfillment of the sweeping changes which Mardi Gras had wrought in the texture of her life.

“Here we are. And it looks as though Sonia had company.” Frank’s voice aroused her from her abstraction. She sat up tensely as the car slowed to a stop outside Sonia’s cottage. There were four other cars parked about in the driveway and street.