mused and be in bright, attractive
places; and when you're lonesome--"

"Lonesome?"

"Certainly you'll be lonesome if you're good."

"Am I not to see you?"

"I'll be in the backwoods working for a living--"

"Yes, but when you come to New York?"

"Sure thing."

"Often?"

"As often as it's advisable," he said pleasantly. "I want you to make
friends at school; I want you to have lots of them. A bachelor girl has
got to have 'em.... It's on your account and theirs that I don't intend
to have anybody make any mistake about me.... Therefore, I'll come to
see you when you've a friend or two present. It's fairer to you. _Now_
do you understand me, Dolly?"

"Yes."

"Is it agreeable?"

"Y-es." And, flushing: "But I did not mistake you, Louis; and there is
no reason not to come, even if I am alone."

He laughed, lighted a cigarette, and stroked the kitten.

"It's an amusing experiment, anyway," he said.

"Have you never tried it before?"

"Oh, yes, several times."

"Were the several times successes?"

"Not one!" he said, laughing. "It's up to you, Dolly, to prove me a
bigger ass than I have been yet--or the reverse."

"It lies with me?" she asked.

"Certainly. Have I ever made love to you?"

"No."

"Ever even kissed you?"

"No."

"Ever been a brute?"

"No.... You are not very careful in speaking to me sometimes. Once--at
the Club--when Mr. Hamil--"

"I _was_ brutal. I know it. Do you want my respect?"

"Y-es."

"Earn it," he said drily.

The girl leaned back in her corner, flushed, silent, thoughtful; and
sometimes her eyes were fixed on vacancy, sometimes on him where he sat
in the opposite seat staring out into the blurred darkness at the red
eye of the beacon on Jupiter Light which turned flaring, turned again,
dwindling to a spark, and went out.

"Of what are you thinking?" she asked, noticing his frown.

He did not reply; he was thinking of Shiela Cardross. And, frowning, he
picked up the kitten, very gently, and flattered it until it purred.

"It's about as big as a minute," said the girl, softly touching the tiny
head.

"There _are_ minutes as big as elephants, too," he said, amused. "Nice
pussy!" The kitten, concurring in these sentiments, purred with
pleasure.

A little later he sauntered back to his own compartment, and, taking out
a memorandum, made some figures.

"Is that girl aboard?" asked Portlaw, looking up from the table, his fat
hands full of cards.

"Yes, I be