latters himself
I shall be hurt and grieved by his sudden departure," reflected Myra.
"Perhaps he thinks he is paying me back in my own coin, and he will
find me ready to fall into his arms, so to speak, on his return. If
so, I can promise him a disappointment."

She tried to put Don Carlos out of her mind, but she found herself
thinking of him continually. Often in her dreams she was again
enfolded in his arms with his lips crushed on her own, and she would
wake with her heart throbbing wildly.

Tony never managed to set her heart throbbing in the same way. Myra
wished he could and would. Perhaps it was her dreams of Don Carlos
that caused her to be particularly nice to Tony during the next week or
two, and to try to persuade herself that she was really in love with
him.

No word came from Don Carlos, but he duly presented himself aboard the
_Killarney_, Tony Standish's yacht, on the appointed day. And he
looked as little like a heart-broken, forlorn lover as anyone could
imagine. Indeed, he seemed to be in exceptionally high spirits, talked
gaily of the enjoyable time he had had in Paris, explaining that he had
combined business with pleasure.

He made no attempt to speak to Myra alone on the first night aboard,
and joined a party of men playing poker in the smoking-room, in
preference to dancing.

"He is really the most baffling and exasperating creature," Myra told
herself. "I expect he thinks he is vexing me by being so casual, the
conceited fellow. I am annoyed with myself for feeling annoyed."

She encountered Don Carlos next morning, when she went up on deck from
her state room to take a stroll before breakfast, and he greeted her
smilingly.

"Buenos dias, senorita," he said, with a gallant bow. "I start the day
well by meeting you, my Myra. Has absence made your heart grow fonder,
my heart's desire?"

"Yes, I am fonder of Tony than ever," answered Myra lightly. "I think
I really ought to thank you, Don Carlos, for pretending to Tony that
you had fallen in love with me. I was vastly amused, but Tony actually
took you seriously, and he has been the most adorably devoted lover
ever since. I am half inclined to suspect that you must have given
Tony some lessons in love-making!"

Don Carlos flashed a searching glance at her, and his smile faded.

"If I thought that Standish would hold you to your promise to marry
him, knowing that you love me, I should kill him," he said, quietly,
calmly a