in a thunderstorm! Your serenader must have been very
young."

"He is," said Cora. "I suppose he's about twenty-three; just a
boy--and a very annoying one, too!"

Her companion looked at her narrowly. "By any chance, is he the
person your little brother seemed so fond of mentioning--Mr.
Vilas?"

Cora gave a genuine start. "Good heavens! What makes you think
that?" she cried, but she was sufficiently disconcerted to confirm
his amused suspicion.

"So it was Mr. Vilas," he said. "He's one of the jilted, of
course."

"Oh, `jilted'!" she exclaimed. "All the wild boys that a girl
can't make herself like aren't `jilted,' are they?"

"I believe I should say--yes," he returned. "Yes, in this
instance, just about all of them."

"Is every woman a target for you, Mr. Corliss? I suppose you know
that you have a most uncomfortable way of shooting up the
landscape." She stirred uneasily, and moved away from him to the
other end of the bench.

"I didn't miss that time," he laughed. "Don't you ever miss?"

He leaned quickly toward her and answered in a low voice: "You can
be sure I'm not going to miss anything about _you_."

It was as if his bending near her had been to rouge her. But it
cannot be said that she disliked his effect upon her; for the deep
breath she drew in audibly, through her shut teeth, was a signal
of delight; and then followed one of those fraught silences not
uncharacteristic of dialogues with Cora.

Presently, she gracefully and uselessly smoothed her hair from the
left temple with the backs of her fingers, of course finishing the
gesture prettily by tucking in a hairpin tighter above the nape of
her neck. Then, with recovered coolness, she asked:

"Did you come all the way from Italy just to sell our old house,
Mr. Corliss?"

"Perhaps that was part of why I came," he said, gayly. "I need a
great deal of money, Miss Cora Madison."

"For your villa and your yacht?"

"No; I'm a magician, dear lady----"

"Yes," she said, almost angrily. "Of course you know it!"

"You mock me! No; I'm going to make everybody rich who will trust
me. I have a secret, and it's worth a mountain of gold. I've put
all I have into it, and will put in everything else I can get for
myself, but it's going to take a great deal more than that. And
everybody who goes into it will come out on Monte Cristo's
island."

"Then I'm sorry papa hasn't anything to put in," she said.

"But he has: his experience in business and