dish, you would not complain of my making love to your
betrothed unless you were unsure of her and were afraid of my winning
her away from you. If you regard me as a dangerous rival, and the
adorable Miss Rostrevor takes me seriously, and you are afraid----"

"That isn't the point, Don Carlos," hastily interposed Tony, beginning
to regret having made so much fuss. "I--er--I am willing to believe
that you have not seriously been trying to steal Myra's affections away
from me, or that possibly Myra may have taken you too seriously."

"How can a mere man hope to read what is in the heart of a woman?"
responded Don Carlos, helping himself to a cigarette. "Our Spanish
girls, if they think an accepted lover is not sufficiently devoted and
attentive, will complain that another man is making passionate
love--thus arousing the lover's jealousy and re-firing him with ardour;
and a married woman will invent a lover and complain of his attentions
for the same reason, if her husband's love seems to be cooling."

"I say, Don Carlos, are you suggesting that Myra complained for that
reason--because she thinks I'm not keen enough?"

"My dear Standish, I am not suggesting anything. I am merely trying to
explain the psychology of the women of my own country as I understand
it. Yet I doubt if Englishwomen differ very greatly, after all, from
their Latin sisters where affairs of the heart are concerned. Won't
you have a cigarette?"

Tony accepted a cigarette from the silver-and-cedar-wood box that was
slid across the table to him, and he lit it with thoughtful
deliberation. Had Myra complained about Don Carlos making love to her
just to keep him "up to scratch," he was wondering, and found himself
more puzzled than ever. He knew that lots of men had been, and
probably still were, in love with Myra, and that fact made him the more
proud to be her accepted lover. He recalled Myra's boast that there
was no horse or man she could not master, and he found it a little
difficult to believe she was really scared of Don Carlos.

"In my country, Mr. Standish, a man betrothed to a girl as beautiful as
Miss Rostrevor would feel almost insulted if his friends did not openly
envy him and protest themselves hopelessly in love with the young lady
he had won," resumed Don Carlos. "The lady herself would feel slighted
if the friends of her betrothed did not continue to attempt to make
love to her. To profess to be heartbroken because she belo