d in her a tendency to enlarge on
the sumptuousness of her establishment there. She asked me naively if I
knew Mrs This and Mrs That, with whom she had been acquainted when she
lived in the north.

Then Miller, the fat German-American, came in. He shook hands all round
very cordially and sat down, asking in his loud, cheerful voice for a
whisky and soda. He was very fat and he sweated profusely. He took off
his gold-rimmed spectacles and wiped them; you saw then that his little
eyes, benevolent behind the large round glasses, were shrewd and
cunning; the party had been somewhat dull till he came, but he was a
good story-teller and a jovial fellow. Soon he had the two women, Ethel
and my friend's wife, laughing delightedly at his sallies. He had a
reputation on the island of a lady's man, and you could see how this
fat, gross fellow, old and ugly, had yet the possibility of fascination.
His humour was on a level with the understanding of his company, an
affair of vitality and assurance, and his Western accent gave a peculiar
point to what he said. At last he turned to me:

"Well, if we want to get back for dinner we'd better be getting. I'll
take you along in my machine if you like."

I thanked him and got up. He shook hands with the others, went out of
the room, massive and strong in his walk, and climbed into his car.

"Pretty little thing, Lawson's wife," I said, as we drove along.

"Too bad the way he treats her. Knocks her about. Gets my dander up when
I hear of a man hitting a woman."

We went on a little. Then he said:

"He was a darned fool to marry her. I said so at the time. If he hadn't,
he'd have had the whip hand over her. He's yaller, that's what he is,
yaller."

The year was drawing to its end and the time approached when I was to
leave Samoa. My boat was scheduled to sail for Sydney on the fourth of
January. Christmas Day had been celebrated at the hotel with suitable
ceremonies, but it was looked upon as no more than a rehearsal for New
Year, and the men who were accustomed to foregather in the lounge
determined on New Year's Eve to make a night of it. There was an
uproarious dinner, after which the party sauntered down to the English
Club, a simple little frame house, to play pool. There was a great deal
of talking, laughing, and betting, but some very poor play, except on
the part of Miller, who had drunk as much as any of them, all far
younger than he, but had kept unimpaired the keenness of