"I've been here three months now, David, and I have
seen her perhaps a score of times; and when I see her, sometimes
entering that great house, sometimes driving in her carriage, always
the very picture of the ideal princess, she seems a creature of another
world than mine, and I laugh at myself for trying to believe that there
ever was a time when she sat on my knees and talked of days to come
when we should have a house like that and drive in such a carriage!
Would she understand me now? Would temporary necessity condone my
descending to this uniform? I tried to do better when I came here, but
I couldn't. I tried even your profession, but they wanted young men.
I came to this only to be near her. But I am away again, David. I
must be up and doing." He had risen, and was speaking rapidly as he
paced the narrow limits of the room. "Money is what I need and I will
have it. Money has always seemed to me a paltry thing to work for, but
now it is for Penelope's sake. There has been a plan in my mind for
some time, David, only I have delayed starting on it--for Penelope's
sake, you understand. I'm going to Argentina. There was a man on my
ship coming out from Yokohama who was bound for Argentina, and he told
me----"

The Professor launched into a glowing account of the promise of the
southern country. To his mind, he had only to reach it to acquire the
wealth which he wanted. The man who had failed in every undertaking,
who had turned back from every goal to which he had set his eyes, would
win there in a few years that for which men in other parts of the world
strove a lifetime. I pointed out that the opportunity lay right at his
hand, and his answer was to spread wide his arms that I might see the
waiter's jacket. He had the better of the argument, but the reason lay
in his own character. Then I had recourse to pleading, and my plea was
made not for his sake, but for Penelope's, for only when I spoke of her
would he listen. I tried to show him Penelope's danger, as it had been
revealed to us that very night in Talcott's drunken talk. His reply
was a laugh. He had so idealized Penelope that it was inconceivable
that she should fall a victim to the attentions of such a vapid
creature. He had not seen, as I had, Talcott sober and correct in
deportment. He had not fallen, as I had, under the spell of Talcott's
easy manner when he had just dropped in from the club to talk of last
night's dance and to-morr