summer hotel is furnished with a full corps of----"

"To be sure," said Hawker; "and if you search for them in the winter,
you can find barely a sign of them, until you examine the boarding
houses, and then you observe----"

"Certainly," said Hollanden, "of course. By the way," he added, "you
haven't got any obviously loose screws in your character, have you?"

"No," said Hawker, after consideration, "only general poverty--that's
all."

"Of course, of course," said Hollanden. "But that's bad. They'll get on
to you, sure. Particularly since you come up here to see Miss Fanhall so
much."

Hawker glinted his eyes at his friend. "You've got a deuced open way of
speaking," he observed.

"Deuced open, is it?" cried Hollanden. "It isn't near so open as your
devotion to Miss Fanhall, which is as plain as a red petticoat hung on a
hedge."

Hawker's face gloomed, and he said, "Well, it might be plain to you, you
infernal cat, but that doesn't prove that all those old hens can see
it."

"I tell you that if they look twice at you they can't fail to see it.
And it's bad, too. Very bad. What's the matter with you? Haven't you
ever been in love before?"

"None of your business," replied Hawker.

Hollanden thought upon this point for a time. "Well," he admitted
finally, "that's true in a general way, but I hate to see you managing
your affairs so stupidly."

Rage flamed into Hawker's face, and he cried passionately, "I tell you
it is none of your business!" He suddenly confronted the other man.

Hollanden surveyed this outburst with a critical eye, and then slapped
his knee with emphasis. "You certainly have got it--a million times
worse than I thought. Why, you--you--you're heels over head."

"What if I am?" said Hawker, with a gesture of defiance and despair.

Hollanden saw a dramatic situation in the distance, and with a bright
smile he studied it. "Say," he exclaimed, "suppose she should not go to
the picnic to-morrow? She said this morning she did not know if she
could go. Somebody was expected from New York, I think. Wouldn't it
break you up, though! Eh?"

"You're so dev'lish clever!" said Hawker, with sullen irony.

Hollanden was still regarding the distant dramatic situation. "And
rivals, too! The woods must be crowded with them. A girl like that, you
know. And then all that money! Say, your rivals must number enough to
make a brigade of militia. Imagine them swarming around! But then it
doesn't matter so