hat also, when her ardent eyes swept across
Lambert's white face, and she burst into tears of anger and
disappointment.

"Oh, rye, I give you all, and you take nothing," she wailed tearfully.

"I don't want anything. You silly girl, do you think that for one moment
I was ever in love with you?"

"I--I--want you--to--to--love me," sobbed Chaldea, grovelling on the
grass.

"Then you want an impossibility," and to Lambert's mind's eye there
appeared the vision of a calm and beautiful face, far removed in its
pure looks from the flushed beauty of the fiery gypsy. To gain control
of himself, he took out a cigar and lighted it. But his hand trembled.
"You little fool," he muttered, and sauntered, purposely, slowly toward
the cottage.

Chaldea gathered herself up with the spring of a tigress, and in a
moment was at his elbow with her face black with rage. Her tears had
vanished and with them went her softer mood. "You--you reject me," she
said in grating tones, and shaking from head to foot as she gripped his
shoulder.

"Take away your hand," commanded Lambert sharply, and when she recoiled
a pace he faced her squarely. "You must have been drinking," he
declared, hoping to insult her into common sense. "What would Kara say
if--"

"I don't want Kara. I want you," interrupted Chaldea, her breast
heaving, and looking sullenly wrathful.

"Then you can't have me. Why should you think of me in this silly way?
We were very good friends, and now you have spoiled everything. I can
never have you to sit for me again."

Chaldea's lip drooped. "Never again? Never again?"

"No. It is impossible, since you have chosen to act in this way. Come,
you silly girl, be sensible, and--"

"Silly girl! Oh, yes, silly girl," flashed out Chaldea. "And what is
she?"

"She?" Lambert stiffened himself. "What do you mean?"

"I mean the Gentile lady. I was under the window this afternoon. I heard
all you were talking about."

The man stepped back a pace and clenched his hands. "You--listened?" he
asked slowly, and with a very white face.

Chaldea nodded with a triumphant smile.

"Avali! And why not? You have no right to love another man's romi."

"I do not love her," began Lambert, and then checked himself, as he
really could not discuss so delicate a matter with this wildcat. "Why
did you listen, may I ask?" he demanded, passing his tongue over his dry
lips.

"Because I love you, and love is jealous."

Lambert restrained himself