were to be congratulated."

Starr Wiley writhed.

"I have not that good fortune," he said stonily.

"Perhaps my remark was premature?"

"No. Your cousin is quite too clever and worldly to have misunderstood
my interest. We were congenial, and it happened that we were thrown
together a lot, but I am sure she never thought of any serious outcome
of our companionship. I would not have mentioned this to you, but you
seemed to be laboring under a false impression. Rumor is never at rest
in our set, and I want you to be assured of the truth."

"Why?" Willa sat straight in her chair. "What possible difference
could it make to me? I am interested, naturally in anything pertaining
to my cousin, but her affairs are her own."

"I want it to make a great deal of difference." He leaned toward her
with a swift, avid light in his eyes. "Ever since I first saw you in
Limasito I knew that you were the only girl I had ever really wanted,
the only girl who could hold me, who was worth working for and waiting
for. Gad! I loved everything about you, even that furious, blazing
temper of yours, and I determined then that I would make you care!"

"You!" She shrank from him in horror and amazement. "You dare to
speak to me of such a thing?"

"Why should I not?" he cried eagerly. "These other girls, these pretty
stuffed dolls who preen themselves and go through their conventional
paces like marionettes on a string; they are fitted perhaps to preside
at a man's table and hold up the social end of the game, but it is
women like you who fire a man's soul as well and drive him to madness!
I knew there in Mexico that you were the one woman who would ever be my
wife!"

"You were so sure?" Willa had regained her composure now, and her
quick brain was probing the possibilities of this unexpected situation.
"That is why, I suppose, you brought your cave-man method into play?"

"I lost control of myself," he admitted. "Can you blame me, now that
you know the truth? Your scorn, your refusal to accept even my
friendship, drove me to desperation. I could not endure it that you
should turn from me----"

"Was it not rather that you could not brook defeat at the hands of a
product of the Blue Chip, a mere gambler's daughter? It piqued you
that I did not faint with delight because I had found favor in your
eyes!" Her scorn bit deep. "Now that conditions are reversed, you
call it love!"

"You are horribly unjust!" He sprang f