you, she can only----"

"Oh!" cried Roddy abjectly, casting aside all subterfuge, "_will_ you
help me? Please, Mrs. Broughton!" he begged. "_Dear_ Mrs. Broughton!
Fix it so I can see her. I am _so_ miserable," he pleaded, "and I am
so happy."

With the joyful light of the match-maker who sees her plans proceeding
to success Mrs. Broughton beamed upon him.

"By a strange coincidence," she began, in tones tantalizingly slow, "a
usually proud and haughty young person condescended to come to me this
morning for advice. _She_ doesn't distrust me. She believes----"

"And what did you advise?" begged Roddy.

"I advised her to wait in the garden until I sent a note telling
you----"

Already Roddy was at the door.

"What part of the garden?" he shouted. "Never mind!" he cried in
alarm, lest Mrs. Broughton should volunteer to guide him. "Don't
bother to show me; I can find her."

Mrs. Broughton went into the Consulate and complained to her husband.

"It makes Roddy so selfish," she protested.

"What did you think he'd do?" demanded Broughton--"ask you to go with
him? You forget Roddy comes from your own happy country where no
chaperon is expected to do her duty."

Inez was standing by the bench at which they had parted. Above her and
around her the feathery leaves of the bamboo trees whispered and
shivered, shading her in a canopy of delicate sun-streaked green.

Like a man who gains the solid earth after a strenuous struggle in the
waves, Roddy gave a deep sigh of content.

"It has been so hard," he said simply. "It's been so long! I have been
parched, starved for a sight of you!"

At other times when they had been together the eyes of the girl always
looked into his steadily or curiously. Now they were elusive, shy,
glowing with a new radiance. They avoided him and smiled upon the
beautiful sun-steeped garden as though sharing some hidden and happy
secret.

"I sent for you," she began, "to tell you----"

Roddy shook his head emphatically.

"You didn't send for me," he said. "I came of my own accord. Last
night you didn't send for me either, but all through the night I sat
outside your house. This morning I am here because this is where I
last saw you. And I find _you_. It's a sign! I thought my heart led me
here, but I think now it was the gods! They are on my side. They fight
for me. Why do you try to fight against the gods?"

His voice was very low, very tender. He bent forward, and the girl,
still av