arms where his fierce grip had bruised her. She was very sure of
him. She waited for him to come back as patiently as a fisherman waits
for the up-rush of a pike that is sulking under the boat. Belinda rocked
gently in the boat of her own love, and waited with smiling patience for
her sulky lover to rejoin her.

But when Loring did finally turn to her again, his mood was not at all
the lover's. He spoke with hard, deliberate precision, biting off the
words at her, as it were.

"If you expect me to insult a woman like Sophy and ruin her life to
please you, you're rather thoroughly mistaken," he said.

Belinda eyed him curiously. Then she made a great mistake. Instinct had
kept her from making it before. Now self-will smothered instinct. She
was so bent on making Morris see this question as she saw it, and
without further loss of time, that she had recourse to an heroic method.

"Are you _really_ as blind as you seem to be, Morry?" she asked.

"'Blind'?" said Loring, rather taken aback.

"Exactly--stone blind."

He said with stiffness:

"I don't catch your meaning."

"Well ... do you _really_ think that Sophy will mind divorcing?"

Loring stared at her blankly. Then he flushed.

"Are you insinuating that she doesn't care for me?" he demanded.

Belinda eyed him again in that sly, incredulous way. Then she said:

"And do you mean to tell me that you haven't noticed a thing of what's
going on between her and the dago?"

"What the devil are you after?" he cried angrily. "I'll thank you not to
hint things about Sophy. She's as high above you as the stars--that's
what!"

"Oh--a kite's high above me, too," said Belinda airily. "What I'm
'hinting' as you call it is only what any one with eyes in his head
couldn't help seeing."

"Come ... speak out!" said Loring roughly.

Belinda gave a sharp sigh, as of disgusted patience.

"Why any _baby_ can see that she and Amaldi are in love with each
other," she flung at him. "Now why do you gape at me like that? I dare
say it began years ago--in Italy, where she saw so much of him...."

Loring could not articulate.

"_Amaldi!_" he stammered at last. "Why, the fellow's sweet on _you_!"

"Pooh!" said Belinda. "He only flirted about with me a bit to make her
jealous...."

"To make ... _Sophy_ ... jealous?"

Loring was talking like a sleep-walker, slowly, with thick utterance.

Belinda began to feel a little uneasy at the very potent effect of her
disclosure. This