opped, and pressed her handkerchief to her lips.

"I believed you didn't care what people thought," he threw in, morosely
defiant.

"That's a poor excuse for your rudeness."

"Well, at least tell me what that fool wanted here."

"Have you no ears? Couldn't you hear that he has just come back from
England, and is calling on his friends?"

"Do you expect me to believe that?"

"Maurice!"

"Oh, he has always been after you--since that night. It's only because
he wasn't here long enough ... and his manner shows what he thinks of
you ... and what he means."

"What do YOU mean? Do you wish to say it's my doing that he came here
to-day?--Don't you believe me?" she demanded, as he did not answer.

"And you in that half-dressed condition!"

"Could I dress before him? How abominable you are!"

He tried to explain. "Yes. Because ... I hate the sight of the
fellow.--You didn't know he was coming, did you, or you wouldn't have
seen him?"

"Know he was coming!" She wrenched her hands away. "Oh! ..."

"Say you didn't!"

"Maurice!--Be jealous, if you must! But surely, surely you don't
believe----"

"Oh, don't ask me what I believe. I only know I won't have that man
hanging about. It was by a mere chance to-day that I came round
earlier; he might have been here for hours, without my suspecting it.
Who knows if you would have told me either?--Would you have told me,
Louise?"

"Oh, how can you be like this! What is the matter with you?"

He put his arms round her, with the old cry. "I can't bear you even to
look at another man. For he's in love with you, and has been, ever
since you made him crazy by dancing with him as you did."

With his hands on her shoulders, he rested his face on her hair.
"Promise me you won't see him again."

Wearily, Louise disengaged herself. "Oh there's always something fresh
to promise. I'm tired of it--of being hedged in, and watched, and never
trusted."

"Tired of me, you mean."

She looked bitterly at him. "There you are again?"

"Just this once--to set my mind at rest. Just this once,
Louise!--darling!"

But she was silent.

"Then you'll let him come here again?"

"How do I know?--But if I promised what you ask, I should not be able
to go with him to the HOTEL DE PRUSSE on the fifteenth."

"You mean to go to that dance?"

"Why not? Would there be any harm in my going?"

"Louise!"

"Maurice!" She mocked his tone, and laughed. "Oh, go at once," she
broke out the next mo