e a many-coloured jewel
in the burning sunset. The dome of its Casino gleamed opalescent in its
centre--a place for wonder--a place for dreams. Yet Saltash's expression
as he landed on the quay was one of whimsical discontent. He had come
nearly a fortnight ago to be amused, but somehow the old pleasures had
lost their relish and he was only bored.

"I'm getting old," he said to himself with a grimace of disgust.

But he was not old. He was barely six-and-thirty. He had had the world at
his feet too long, that was all.

There was to be a water-side _fete_ that night at Valrosa, and the
promenade and bandstand were wreathed with flowers and fairy-lights. It
was getting late in the season, and it would probably be the last.
Saltash surveyed the preparations with very perfunctory interest as he
sauntered up to the hotel next to the Casino where he proposed to dine.

A few people he knew were staying there, and he looked forward to a more
or less social evening. At least he could count on a welcome and a rubber
of bridge if he felt so inclined. Or there was the Casino itself if the
gambling mood should take him. But he did not feel much like gambling. He
wanted something new. None of the old stale amusements appealed to him
tonight. He was feeling very ancient and rather dilapidated.

He went up the steps under the cypress-trees that led from terrace to
terrace, pausing at each landing-place to look out over the wonderful
sea that was changing every moment with the changing glow of the sunset.
Yes, it was certainly a place for dreams. Even old Larpent felt the
charm--Larpent who had fallen in love twenty years ago for the first and
last time!

An irrepressible chuckle escaped him. Funny old Larpent! The wine of the
gods had evidently been too strong a brew for him. It was obvious that he
had no desire to repeat the dose.

At his last halting-place he stood longer to drink in the beauty of the
evening before entering the hotel. The sea had the pearly tint shot with
rose of the inside of an oyster-shell. The sky-line was receding, fading
into an immense calm. The shadows were beginning to gather. The sun had
dipped out of sight.

The tinkle of a lute rose from one of the hidden gardens below him. He
stood and listened with sentimental eyes and quizzically twitching mouth.
Everything in this wonder-world was ultra-sweet to-night. And yet--and
yet--

Suddenly another sound broke through the stillness, and in a moment