been enraged with the whirlwind.

"I'll be your friend, and get you out of the scrape," I said. "But it
will mean that you must give up the Contessa."

"Give up the Contessa!" echoed the Boy. "What do _I_ want with the
Contessa! I'm sick of the sight of her."

"Since when?"

"Since the first day we met. I don't think she's even pretty. What
you can see in her, I don't know--the silly little giggling thing!
There, it's out at last."

"What I see in her?" I repeated. "I like that."

"I always supposed you did. But I can't _stand_ her."

"Well, of all the---- Look here, why have you been hanging after her,
if you--"

"I didn't. I just wasn't going to let you make a fool of yourself over
her, and then regret it afterwards. So I--I did my best to take her
attention away from you, and I succeeded fairly well. It--vexed me to
see you falling in love with her. She wasn't worth it."

"There was never the remotest chance of my doing so."

"You said there was."

"I was chaffing, just to hear myself talk. I should have thought you
would know that."

"How could I know? You were always saying how pretty and dainty she
was, and quoting poetry about her, while all the time I could read her
shallow little mind, and see how different she was from what you
imagined."

"I think I have a fairly clear idea of her limitations."

"But you told me that you'd planned to go down to Monte Carlo
expressly to see the Contessa; and you said that it would perhaps be a
wise thing for you to try and fall in love with her."

"If a man has to try and fall in love with a woman, he's pretty safe.
You and I seem to have been playing at cross purposes, youngster. You
thought I was in danger of falling in love, and I thought you were
already in."

"You _couldn't_ have believed it, really."

"I did, and supposed you wanted me out of the way."

"I was thinking the same thing about you. You did seem jealous and
sulky."

"I was both; but it was because our friendship had been interfered
with, Little Pal."

"Oh, Man, do you really mean that?"

"Every word of it. I wouldn't give up a talk with you for a kiss from
the Contessa, of which, by the way, I'm very unlikely to have the
chance. But you----"

"I've been miserable for the last few days. I--I missed you, Man."

"And I you, Boy."

"What an awful pity it is I've got to stand up and be shot, just as
we're good friends again, and everything's all right!"

"You've got to do nothing