But he need not have feared to-night. Paul Zalenska's triumph was
short-lived. When once inside the conservatory, the girl turned and
faced him, indignantly.

"What an utterly shameless thing to do!" she exclaimed.

"Why?" he demanded. "You were not treating me with due respect and
'self-preservation is the first law of nature,' you know. I am so little
accustomed to being--snubbed, that I don't take it a bit kindly!"

"I did not snub you," she said, "at least, not intentionally. But of
course my friends have prior claims on my time and attention. I can't
put them aside for a mere stranger."

"A stranger?" he echoed. "Then you mean----"

"I mean what?"

"To ignore our former--acquaintance--altogether?"

"I do mean just that! One has many desperate flirtations on board ship,
but one isn't in any way bound to remember them. It is not
always--convenient. You may have foolishly remembered. I
have--forgotten!"

"You have not forgotten. I say you have not, Opal."

"We use surnames in society, Monsieur Zalenska?"

"Opal!" appealingly.

"Why such emotion, Monsieur?" mockingly.

The Boy was taken aback for a moment, but he met her eyes bravely.

"Why? Because I love you, Opal, and in your heart you know it!"

"Why?"

"Why do I love you? Because I can't help it! Who knows, really, why
anything happens or does not happen in this topsy-turvy world?"

The girl looked at him steadily for a moment, and then spoke
indifferently, almost lightly.

"Have you looked at the orchid you wished so much to see, Monsieur
Zalenska? Mamma is very proud of it!"

"Opal!"

But she went on, heedless of his interruption, "Because, if you haven't,
you must look at it hastily--you have wasted some time quite foolishly
already--and I have promised to join the Count in a few moments, and--"

"Very well. I understand, Opal!" Paul stiffened. "I will relieve you of
my presence. But don't think you will always escape so easily because I
yield now. You have not meant all you have said to me to-night, and I
know it as well as you do. You have tried to play with me--"

"I beg your pardon!"

"You knew the tiger was in my blood--you couldn't help but know it!--and
yet you deliberately awakened him!" She gave him a startled glance, her
eyes appealing for mercy, but he went on relentlessly. "Yes, after the
manner of women since the world began, you lured him on and on! Is it my
fault--or yours--if he devour us both?"

Paul Verdayne, stra