INK"--he was cautious
here--"I THINK I've seen him at the house of a very wealthy lady in New
York--a Miss Royal--"

"Ah!" exclaimed Manella--"That is the name of the fairy woman who came
here!"

Gwent went on without heeding her.

"She, too, is very clever,--she is also an inventor and a
scientist--and if it was she who came here--(I daresay it was!) it was
probably because she wished to ask his advice and opinion on some of
the difficult things she studies--"

Manella snapped her fingers as though they were castanets.

"Ah--bah!" she exclaimed--"Not at all! No difficult thing takes a woman
out by moonlight, all in soft white and diamonds to see a man!--no
difficult thing at all, except to tempt him to love! Yes! That is the
way it is done! I begin to learn! And you, if you are not his friend,
what are you here for?"

Gwent began to feel impatient with this irrepressible "prize" beauty.

"I came to see him at his own request on business;" he answered
curtly--"The business is concluded and I go away to-morrow."

Manella was silent. The low chirping of a cicada hidden in the myrtle
thicket made monotonous sweetness on the stillness.

Moved by some sudden instinct which he did not attempt to explain to
himself, Gwent decided to venture on a little paternal advice.

"Now don't you fly off in a rage at what I'm going to say,"--he began,
slowly--"You're only a child to me--so I'm just taking the liberty of
talking to you as a child. Don't give too much of your time or your
thought to the man you call a 'god.' He's no more a god than I am. But
I tell you one thing--he's a dangerous customer!"

Manella's great bright eyes opened wide like stars in the darkness.

"Dangerous?--How?--I do not understand---!"

"Dangerous!"--repeated Gwent, shaking his head at her--"Not to you,
perhaps,--for you probably wouldn't mind if he killed you, so long as
he kissed you first! Oh, yes, I know the ways of women! God made them
trusting animals, ready to slave all their lives for the sake of a
caress. YOU are one of that kind--you'd willingly make a door-mat of
yourself for Seaton to wipe his boots on. I don't mean that he's
dangerous in that way, because though _I_ might think him so, YOU
wouldn't. No,--what I mean is that he's dangerous to himself--likely to
run risks of his life---"

Here he paused, checked by the sudden terror in the beautiful eyes that
stared at him.

"His life!" and Manella's voice trembled--"You think