was afraid he'd have to ask me to release him
from his promise to be my guest on the yachting tour. Naturally I
asked him why, and he told me frankly that he had fallen in love with
you."

Myra's heart beat a trifle faster as she listened.

"Said he thought it was only right I should know, and that he supposed
it wouldn't be playing the game according to English ideas if he made
love to you and tried to win you from me while he was my guest,"
continued Tony. "I didn't know quite what to say, except that I was
sorry."

He looked at Myra expectantly and a little anxiously as he paused, and
Myra laughed involuntarily. But her heart was still behaving rather
oddly and she felt her face flushing.

"How absurd, Tony!" she exclaimed. "Do you think he was in earnest?"

"Oh, yes, he seemed to be in deadly earnest," replied Tony. "Er--I
didn't quite know what to do about it, as I said before, but it
suddenly occurred to me that if I let Don Carlos withdraw his
acceptance of my invitation it might seem like an admission that I had
not complete faith in you and was afraid of losing you. You see what I
mean, Myra?"

"More or less," said Myra, rather bewildered. "But surely you don't
mean that you pressed him to come, knowing he would go on making love
to me?"

"I didn't exactly press him, but I told him that if he felt he must
decline my invitation because he was in love with you, we should
naturally have to decline his invitation to Spain for the same reason,"
responded Tony. "I told him he ought to have known you were only
amusing yourself to pay him out, and that he should have known better
than lose his heart after you had objected to his attempting to make
love to you. So eventually he laughed and said if I wasn't afraid of
him as a rival he would come. I hope you don't mind, darling. I told
him he hadn't an earthly hope."

"It is nice to know you are so sure of me that you have no fear of a
rival," commented Myra drily, after a momentary pause.

"I say, Myra, do you mean that, or are you being sarcastic?" asked
Tony. "What could I do in the circumstances? Perhaps I shouldn't have
mentioned the matter to you at all, but--er--I thought you might feel
rather flattered to know that you have made another conquest, and you
know you said you weren't in the least afraid of Don Carlos. I
thought, too, that you'd take it rather as a compliment if I showed I
had complete faith in you. You didn't really want me