say if they
knew she was treating him as an insignificant friend, a good little boy
who helped her while away the hours in the solitude of her voluntary
exile?

A few kisses--on her hand; a few kind words; many many cruel jests, such
as come from a chum conscious of superiority ... that was all he had won
after months and months and months of assiduous courtship, months of
disobedience to his mother, in whose house he had been living like a
stranger, without affection, at daggers' points; months of exposure to
the criticism of his enemies, who suspected him of a liaison with the
"chorus girl" and were raising their brows, horror-stricken, in the name
of morality. How they would scoff, if they knew the truth! Those
addlepates down at the Club were always boasting of their amorous
adventures, which began inevitably with the sudden physical attack and
ended in easy triumph.

With the Spaniard's mortal dread of looking ridiculous, Rafael began to
assure himself that those brutes were right--that such was the road to
a woman's heart. He had been too respectful, too humble, gazing at
Leonora, timidly, submissively, from afar, as an idolater might look at
an ikon. Bosh! Wasn't he a man, and isn't the man the stronger? Some
show of a male authority, that was what she needed! He liked her! Well,
that was the end of it! His she must be! Besides, since she treated him
so kindly, she surely loved him! A few scruples perhaps! But that would
be nothing, before a show of real manhood!

Just as this valorous decision had emerged in the full splendor of its
dignity from the mess of vacillation in his weak, irresolute character,
Rafael heard voices down the road. He jumped to his feet. Leonora was
approaching, followed by the two peasant women, who were bent low under
their heavily laden baskets.

"Here, too!" the actress exclaimed with a laugh that rippled charmingly
under the white skin of her throat. "You are getting to be my shadow. In
the market place, on the road, everywhere! I find you every time I look
around!"

She accepted the bouquet of violets from the young man's hand, inhaling
their fragrance with evidence of keen enjoyment.

"Thanks, Rafael, they are the first I have seen this season. My
beautiful, faithful old friend! Springtime! You have brought her to me
this year, though I felt her coming days before! I am so happy--can't
you see? I feel as though I'd been a silkworm all winter, coiled up in a
cocoon, and had n