"To do him credit--and it makes me hopeful for him--Farrell has a certain instinct of self-preservation. Let us never forget that he is a widower. Amid these Amazons he had fenced a bachelor table. I walked up to it straight and said, with a glance around, 'Farrell, you're lonely.' "He passed a hand over his forehead and murmured, 'Oh, for God's sake--don't drive me like this! . . .' "'Nonsense,' said I. 'Forget it, man. Look around you and say if there's one of these spinsters you'd rather have for companion. Don't raise your voice. You started in admirable key. . . . Let's keep to it and understand one another. I'm dining with you. If you like, we'll toss up later for who pays: but I'm dining with you. I promise not to hurt you to-night, if that helps conviviality.' "'It does,' said he in a queer way. 'Let's talk.' "'Well then,' said I confidentially. 'You're a solid man. You've made your way in the world, and I suppose the sort of success you've won implies some grit. . . . What makes you afraid of me, Farrell?' "He drank some wine and stared down on the table-cloth, knitting his brows. 'Well,' he answered, 'I might tell you it's because you're mad.' "'That's nonsense,' I assured him. "'Oh, is it?' said he. 'I'd like to be sure it is.' "'My pulse, as yours, doth temperately keep time," I quoted. 'Feel it, Farrell.' "I stretched out my wrist. He started back as though it had been a snake. "'On the whole you're right,' said I, drawing back my hand slowly, watching his eyes. 'If they saw you feeling my pulse the ladies around us would at once solve the doubt they have discussed in the drawing-room. All _table-d'hote_ ladies speculate concerning their fellow-guests in the hotel. . . . . Thirty pairs of eyes were on the point of detecting you for a fashionable physician, and by this time to-morrow thirty ladies travelling in search of health would have found means to make your acquaintance and pump you for medical advice on the cheap. . . . Yes, Farrell, you have a lively instinct of self-preservation. I will note it. . . . Now tell me.--When I walked in just now, that same instinct prompted you to get up and run; to run as you did along the foreshore this afternoon. What restrained you?' "'Why, hang it all,' he blurted with a look around; 'a fellow couldn't very well show up like that before all these ladies!' "He meant it too, Roddy. It came out with a flush, plump and honest.