ION

They went together in a double chair, spinning noiselessly over the
shell road which wound through oleander and hibiscus hedges. Great
orange and sulphur-tinted butterflies kept pace with them as they
travelled swiftly southward; the long, slim shadows of palms gridironed
the sunny road, for the sun was in the west, and already a bird here and
there had ventured on a note or two as prelude to the evening song, and
over the ocean wild ducks were rising in clouds, swinging and drifting
and settling again as though in short rehearsal for their sunset flight.

"Your hostess is Mrs. Tom O'Hara," said the girl; "when you have enough
of it look at me and I'll understand. And if you try to hide in a corner
with some soulful girl I'll look at you--if it bores me too much. So
don't sit still with an infatuated smile, as Cecile does, when she sees
that I wish to make my adieux."

"I'm so likely to," he said, "when escape means that I'll have you to
myself again."

There was a trifle more significance in the unconsidered speech than he
had intended. The girl looked absently straight in front of her; he sat
motionless, uncomfortable at his own words, but too wise to attempt to
modify them by more words.

Other chairs passed them now along the road--there were nods of
recognition, gay salutes, an intimate word or two as the light-wheeled
vehicles flashed past; and in a moment more the tall coquina gate posts
and iron grille of Mrs. Tom O'Hara's villa, Tsana Lahni, glimmered under
an avenue of superb royal palms.

The avenue was crowded with the slender-wheeled basket-bodied chairs gay
with the plumage of pretty women; the scene on the lawns beyond was
charming where an orange and white pavilion was pitched against the
intense green of the foliage, and the pelouse was all dotted and
streaked with vivid colours of sunshades and gowns.

"Ulysses among the sirens," she whispered as they made their way toward
their hostess, exchanging recognition with people everywhere in the
throngs. "Here they are--all of them--and there's Miss Suydam,--too
unconscious of us. How hath the House of Hamil fallen!--"

"If you talk that way I won't leave you for one second while we're
here!" he said under his breath.

"Nonsense; it only hurts me, not my pride. And half a cup of unforbidden
tea will drown the memory of that insolence--"

She bent forward with smiling composure to shake hands with Mrs. Tom
O'Hara, a tall, olive-tinted, blac