way to the syncopation of a fox-trot, yet neither was aware
of the passing minutes.

"I was blind in Limasito!" he went on. "No woman has come deeply into
my life except my sister and I did not know, I did not realize what you
had come to mean to me in our few meetings until you were going away
into this new existence which was awaiting you, and then I could not
speak. I did not follow you then because I had nothing to offer, but I
made up my mind to succeed in what I had set out to do, if honest
endeavor and the hardest kind of work could achieve it and then, if I
were not too late, I meant to come to you and ask you to be my wife."

Willa stirred tremulously, but still her lips were dumb, and Thode
misinterpreted her silence.

"Please, don't be afraid!" he assured her, bitterly. "I am not going
to ask you that now, for I have failed! I'm not even going to ask you
to wait for me, to give me any hope, for I am losing faith in myself;
not in my love for you, Willa, but in the success which alone would
make it possible for me to approach you. I only wanted you to know
that I had awakened to the truth. No girl was ever yet displeased at
one more victim bound to her chariot wheels."

"I am not displeased, but I--I am distressed!" Willa stammered through
stiffened lips. "You think because I accepted the name and the fortune
of the grandfather I never knew, and apparently forgot the old life and
all that Dad had done for me, that I am just coldly mercenary! You
think I am that sort, ambitious and pushing and soulless! I thought
you knew and understood me, I thought that we were friends!"

"That, I hope, we shall always be," he said gently. "It would have
been quixotic, absurd for you to refuse the golden opportunity when it
came. I did not think of that, nor did I believe you mercenary. I did
not mean to whine about my failure, either; it was the chance of
fortune and I have lost. You will forgive my having spoken--I had to
tell you! I could not keep silent any longer, it was as if you, all
unconsciously, were twisting the heart from my breast. You could not
help it if you wanted to, you are so sweet, so wonderful! Please,
don't be sorry for me, either, it is the greatest thing that ever
happened to me and I shall be glad of it, always, even when I have to
stand aside and see you turn to a better, bigger man. No matter what
happens I shall, all my life through, be at your service."

"Oh, I am not the l