rosebud mouth, the same sweet and lovable
expression.

The little speech he had prepared on the train would not leave his
lips; and he could only look, with the color heating his cheeks, as
Eileen smiled tenderly and a little meekly, as she had smiled when they
parted at the consulate in Shanghai over a year before.

He began to realize, even as he considered and reconsidered his motive,
that she was mutely begging him not to kiss her at this time. Perhaps
the pressure of her fingers, a subtle pressure away from her instead of
toward her, gave him this understanding.

He became aware gradually of another presence, as he was jostled from
this side to that by other new arrivals, conscious of the sidelong look
that Eileen was giving another man.

With a slight feeling of resentment, Peter examined this interloper,
finding himself gazing into the unfriendly, tanned face of a man of
about his own age, with keen, sharp, brown eyes, a dimple in his chin,
and a thick, blue book under his arm. Through a maze Peter heard his
name spoken, then the words "Professor Hodgson;" and he found himself
shaking hands briskly with the invader.

Then Peter excused himself, returning with the baggage-checks, and he
discovered both Eileen and Professor Hodgson examining him with the
frank curiosity that one might bestow upon some wandering minstrel, a
foreigner, an alien. He felt, as the odd member of any triangle is
sure to feel, that he was a lone bird; that Eileen and her glowering
professor were drawn together by some bond unknown to him, but whose
nature he warmly resented.

And thus began the crumbling of the rosy crystalline little world that
Peter had created for the sole occupation of Eileen Lorimer.

As the three walked slowly down the station platform, he felt the
tension, the exaggerated repugnance, which any outdone suitor is bound
to feel toward his successful rival. He felt sick and useless, and
somehow he wished he was back aboard the train again. He had blown his
dream-bubble, rapturously contemplating the shining, dancing,
multicolored surface as it expanded and became of size. And this
bubble had been rudely pricked.

He felt Eileen's light hand upon his arm, and he heard her voice
suddenly become weighted with feminine importance. She was saying:

"Mr. Moore and I have a great deal to talk over. You will excuse me,
won't you, until to-night?"

Professor Hodgson, frowning, nodded courteously. "Perhaps M