ous sixth sense
some women are endowed with, and she rejoiced in her power to make him
suffer. He deserved to suffer, she said. Perhaps he'd have some idea of
the proper respect due the next girl he met! These foreigners! _Mon
Dieu_! She'd teach him that American girls were a little different from
the kind they had in his country, where "what men want, they take," as
he had said. What kind of heathen was he?

And she watched him surreptitiously from under her long lashes with a
curious gleam of satisfaction in her eyes. She had always known she had
this power over men, but she had never cared quite so much about using
it before and had been more annoyed than gratified by the effect her
personality had had upon her masculine world.

So she smiled at the Count, she laughed with the Count and made eyes
most shamelessly at the disgusting old gallant till something in his
face warned her that she had reached a point beyond which even her
audacity dared not go.

Heavens! how the old monster would _devour_ a woman, she thought, with a
thrill of disgust. There were awful things in his face!

And the Boy glared at de Roannes with unspeakable profanity in his eyes,
while the girl laughed to herself and enjoyed it all as girls do enjoy
that sort of thing.

It was delightful, this game of speaking eyes and lips.

"Oh, the little more, and how much it is!
And the little less, and what worlds away!"

But it was, as she could dimly see, a game that might prove exceedingly
dangerous to play, and the Count had spoiled it all, anyway. And a
curious flutter in her heart, as she watched the Boy take his punishment
with as good grace as possible, pled for his pardon until she finally
desisted and bade the little company good night.

At her departure the men took a turn at bridge, but none of them seemed
to care much for the cards that night and the Boy soon broke away. He
was about to withdraw to his stateroom in chagrin when quite
unexpectedly he found Opal standing by the rail, wrapped in a long
cloak. She was gazing far out toward the distant horizon, the light of
strange, puzzling thoughts in the depths of her eyes. She did not notice
him until he stood by her side, when she turned and faced him defiantly.

"Opal," he said, "there was one poet of life and love whom we did not
quote in our little discussion to-night. Do you remember Tennyson's
words,

"'A man had given all earthly bliss
And all his worldly wo