don't give up hope. I don't give up you."

The girl exclaimed with a gesture of despair. "He won't understand!"
she cried.

Hemingway advanced eagerly.

"Help me to understand," he begged.

"You won't understand," explained the girl, "that I am speaking the
truth. You are right that things can change in the future, but nothing
can change the past. Can't you understand that?"

"What do I care for the past?" cried the young man scornfully. "I know
you as well as though I had known you for a thousand years and I love
you."

The girl flushed crimson.

"Not my past," she gasped. "I meant--"

"I don't care what you meant," said Hemingway. "I'm not prying into
your little secrets. I know only one thing--two things, that I love
you and that, until you love me, I am going to make your life hell!"

He caught at her hands, and for an instant she let him clasp them in
both of his, while she looked at him.

Something in her face, other than distress and pity, caused his heart
to leap. But he was too wise to speak, and, that she might not read
the hope in his eyes, turned quickly and left her. He had not crossed
the grounds of the agency before he had made up his mind as to the
reason for her repelling him.

"She is engaged to Fearing!" he told himself. "She has promised to
marry Fearing! She thinks that it is too late to consider another man!"
The prospect of a fight for the woman he loved thrilled him greatly.
His lower jaw set pugnaciously.

"I'll show her it's not too late," he promised himself. "I'll show her
which of us is the man to make her happy. And, if I am not the man,
I'll take the first outbound steamer and trouble them no more. But
before that happens," he also promised himself, "Fearing must show he
is the better man."

In spite of his brave words, in spite of his determination, within the
day Hemingway had withdrawn in favor of his rival, and, on the Crown
Prince Eitel, bound for Genoa and New York, had booked his passage home.

On the afternoon of the same day he had spoken to Polly Adair,
Hemingway at the sunset hour betook himself to the consulate. At that
hour it had become his custom to visit his fellow countryman and with
him share the gossip of the day and such a cocktail as only a fellow
countryman could compose. Later he was to dine at the house of the
Ivory Company and, as his heart never ceased telling him, Mrs. Adair
also was to be present.

"It will be a very pleasant