now a joke when you see it? It was to
worry your cousin, wasn't it? But it didn't in the least succeed."

"Why should you wish to worry my cousin?"

"Because he's so provoking!" she instantly answered; after which she
laughed as if for her falling too simply into the trap he had laid.
"Surely, at all events, I had my freedom no less than I have it now.
Pray what explanations should I have owed you and in what fear of you
should I have gone? However, that has nothing to do with it. Say I did
tell you that we might arrange it on the day you should come to me
covered with glory in the shape of little tinkling medals: why should
you anticipate that transaction by so many years and knock me down such
a long time in advance? Where's the glory, please, and where are the
medals?"

"Dearest girl, am I not going to strange parts--a capital
promotion--next month," he insistently demanded, "and can't you trust me
enough to believe I speak with a real appreciation of the facts (that
I'm not lying to you in short) when I tell you I've my foot in the
stirrup? The glory's dawning. _I_'m all right too."

"What you propose to me, then, is to accompany you _tout bonnement_ to
your new post. What you propose to me is to pack up and start?"

"You put it in a nutshell." But Peter's smile was strained.

"You're touching--it has its charm. But you can't get anything in any of
the Americas, you know. I'm assured there are no medals to be picked up
in those parts--which are therefore 'strange' indeed. That's why the
diplomatic body hate them all."

"They're on the way, they're on the way!"--he could only feverishly
hammer. "The people here don't keep us long in disagreeable places
unless we want to stay. There's one thing you can get anywhere if you've
ability, and nowhere if you've not, and in the disagreeable places
generally more than in the others; and that--since it's the element of
the question we're discussing--is simply success. It's odious to be put
on one's swagger, but I protest against being treated as if I had
nothing to offer--to offer a person who has such glories of her own. I'm
not a little presumptuous ass; I'm a man accomplished and determined,
and the omens are on my side." Peter faltered a moment and then with a
queer expression went on: "Remember, after all, that, strictly speaking,
your glories are also still in the future." An exclamation at these
words burst from Miriam's lips, but her companion resumed quickly: "