she did as he requested. She sat on
the grass some three or four paces off. He stretched out a hand to
touch her, but she pushed it back very decidedly. He smiled.

"I mustn't make love to you this morning, eh?" he queried. "All right!
I don't want to make love--it doesn't interest me--I only want to put
you in a good temper! You are like a rumpled pussy-cat--your fur must
be stroked the right way."

"YOU will not stroke it so!" said Manella, disdainfully.

"No?"

"No. Never again!"

"Oh, dire tragedy!" And he stretched himself out on the turf with his
arms above his head--"But what does it matter! Give me your news, silly
child! What did the 'little wonderful white woman' say to you?"

"You want to know?"

"I think so! I am conscious of a certain barbaric spirit of curiosity,
like that of a savage who sees a photograph of himself for the first
time! Yes! I want to know what the modern feminine said to the
primitive!"

Manella gave an impatient gesture.

"I do not understand all your fine words"--she said--"But I will answer
you. I told her about you--how you had come to live in the hut for the
dying on the hill rather than at the Plaza--and how I took to you all
the food you asked for, and she seemed amused--"

"Amused?" he echoed.

"Yes--amused. She laughed,--she looks very pretty when she laughs.
And--and she seemed to fancy--"

He lifted himself upright in a sitting posture.

"Seemed to fancy? ... what?--"

"That I was not bad to look at--" and Manella, gathering sudden
boldness, lifted her dark eyes to his face--"She said I could tell you
that she thinks me quite beautiful! Yes!--quite beautiful!"

He smiled--a smile that was more like a sneer.

"So you are! I've told you so, often. 'There needs no ghost come from
the grave' to emphasise the fact. But she--the purring cat!--she told
you to repeat her opinion to me, because--can you guess why?"

"No!"

"Simpleton! Because she wishes you to convey to me the message that she
considers me your lover and that she admires my taste! Now she'll go
back to New York full of the story! Subtle little devil! But I am not
your lover, and never shall be,--not even for half an hour!"

Manella sprang up from the turf where she had been sitting.

"I know that!" she said, and her splendid eyes flashed proud
defiance--"I know I have been a fool to let myself care for you! I do
not know why I did--it was an illness! But I am well now!"

"You are well now? G