it was noon before they were aware of it. By half-past
twelve Blix had caught three trout, though the first was by far the
heaviest. Condy had not had so much as a bite. At one o'clock they
rowed ashore and had lunch under a huge live-oak in a little
amphitheatre of manzanita.

Never had a lunch tasted so delicious. What if the wine was warm and
the stuffed olives oily? What if the pepper for the hard-boiled eggs
had sifted all over the "devilish" ham sandwiches? What if the eggs
themselves had not been sufficiently cooked, and the corkscrew
forgotten? They COULD not be anything else but inordinately happy,
sublimely gay. Nothing short of actual tragedy could have marred the
joy of that day.

But after they were done eating, and Blix had put away the forks and
spoons, and while Condy was stretched upon his back smoking a cigar,
she said to him:

"Now, Condy, what do you say to a little game of cards with me?"

The cigar dropped from Condy's lips, and he sat suddenly upright,
brushing the fallen leaves from his hair. Blix had taken a deck of
cards from the lunch-basket, and four rolls of chips wrapped in tissue
paper. He stared at her in speechless amazement.

"What do you say?" she repeated, looking at him and smiling.

"Why, Blix!" he exclaimed in amazement, "what do you mean?"

"Just what I say. I want you to play cards with me."

"I'll not to do it," he declared, almost coldly.

"Listen to me, Condy," answered Blix; and for quite five minutes, while
he interrupted and protested and pshawed and argued, she talked to him
calmly and quietly.

"I don't ask you to stop playing, Condy," she said, as she finished; "I
just ask you that when you feel you must play--or--I mean, when you
want to very bad, you will come and play with me, instead of playing at
your club."

"But it's absurd, it's preposterous. I hate to see a girl
gambling--and you of all girls!"

"It's no worse for me than it is for you and--well, do you suppose I
would play with any one else? Maybe you think I can't play well enough
to make it interesting for you," she said gayly. "Is that it? I can
soon show you, Condy Rivers--never mind when I learned how."

"But, Blix, you don't know how often we play, those men and I. Why, it
is almost every--you don't know how often we play."

"Condy, whenever you want to play, and will play with ME, no matter
what I've got in hand, I'll stop everything and play with you."

"But why?"

"Beca