o!

"To Paris?" he said, shaking his head sadly. "No, dearest one. Not now.
Listen: I have in my bag upstairs an offer from a great American
corporation. I am asked to assume the management of its entire business
in France. My headquarters would be in Paris. My duties would begin as
soon as my contract with Sir John Brodney expires. The position is a
lucrative one; it presents unlimited opportunities. I am a comparatively
poor man. The letter was forwarded to me by Sir John. I have a year in
which to decide."

"And you--you will decline?" she asked.

"Yes. I shall go back to America, where there are no princesses of the
royal blood. Paris is no place for the disappointed, cast-off lover. I
can't go there. I love you too madly. I'd go on loving you, and
you--good as you are, would go on loving me. There is no telling what
would come of it. It will be hard for me to--to stay away from
Paris--desperately hard. Sometimes I feel that I will not be strong
enough to do it, Genevra."

"But Paris is huge, Hollingsworth," she argued, insistently, an eager,
impelling light in her eyes. "We would be as far apart as if the ocean
were between us."

"Ah, but would we?" he demanded.

"It is almost unheard-of for an American to gain _entree_ to our--to the
set in which--well, you understand," she said, blushing painfully in the
consciousness that she was touching his pride. He smiled sadly.

"My dear, you will do me the honour to remember that I am not trying to
get into your set. I am trying to induce you to come into mine. You
won't be tempted, so that's the end of it. Beastly day, isn't it?" He
uttered the trite commonplace as if no other thought than that of the
weather had been in his mind. "By the way," he resumed, with a most
genial smile, "for some queer, un-masculine reason, I took it into my
head last night to worry about the bride's trousseau. How are you going
to manage it if you are unable to leave the island until--well, say
June?"

She returned his smile with one as sweetly detached as his had been,
catching his spirit. "So good of you to worry," she said, a defiant red
in her cheeks. "You forget that I have a postponed trousseau at home. A
few stitches here and there, an alteration or two, some smart summer
gowns and hats--Oh, it will be so simple. What is it? What do you see?"

He was looking eagerly, intently toward the long, low headland beyond
the town of Aratat.

"The smoke! See? Close in shore, too! By