"

Cutty scowled into space. "Have a scar over an eyebrow?"

"Good gracious, I couldn't tell! Both his eyes were black and his nose
banged dreadfully. Johnny Two-Hawks probably did it."

"Bully for Two-Hawks! Kitty, you're a marvel. Not a flivver from the
start. And those slate-blue eyes of yours don't miss many things."

"Listen!" she interrupted, taking hold of his sleeve. "Hear it?"

"Only the Elevated."

"Tumpitum-tump! Tumpitum-tump! Cutty, you hypnotized me this afternoon
with your horrid drums."

"The emeralds?" He managed to repress the start.

"I don't know what it is; drums, anyhow. Maybe it is the emeralds.
Something has been happening ever since you told me about them--the
misery and evil that follow their wake."

"But the story goes that women are immune, Kitty."

"Nonsense! No woman is immune where a wonderful gem is concerned. And
yet I've common sense and humour."

"And a lot more besides, Kitty. You're a raving, howling little beauty;
and how you've remained out of captivity this long is a puzzler to me.
Haven't you got a beau somewhere?"

"No, Cutty. Perhaps I'm one of those who are quite willing to wait
patiently. If the one I want doesn't come--why, I'll be a jolly,
philosophical old maid. No seconds or culls for me, as the magazine
editor says."

"Exactly what do you want?" Cutty was keenly curious, for some reason he
could not define. He did not care for diamonds as stones; but he admired
any personality that flashed differently from each new angle exposed.

"Oh, a man, among other things. I don't mean one of those godlike
chromos in the frontispiece of popular novels. He hasn't got to be
handsome. But he must be able to laugh when he's happy, when he's hurt.
I must be his business in life. He must know a lot about things I know.
I want a comrade who will come to me when he has a joke or an ache. A
gay man and whimsical. The law can make any man a husband, but only God
can make a good comrade."

"Kitty," said Cutty, his fine eyes sparkling, "I shan't have to watch
over you so much as I thought. On the other hand, you have described me
to a dot."

"Quite possibly. Vanity has its uses. It keeps us in contact with
bathtubs and nice clothes. I imagine that you would make both husband
and comrade; or you would have, twenty years ago"--without intentional
cruelty. Wasn't Cutty fifty-two?

"Kitty, you've touched a vital point. It took those twenty years to make
me companionable. Expe