"That was strong enough." "I meant it to be. He has been scurrilously treated, and somebody must stand by him. Now, to-morrow, February 14th, is his birthday. I remember it because we met on St. Valentine's day, and it wasn't many hours afterward that I guessed how he felt about me." "Dorothea! Do you mean to tell me that a man spoke to you of his feelings within twenty-four hours of the time you met?" "No, I do not." "You certainly intimated as much. If it wasn't many hours after you met on the 14th it must have been on the 15th." "No, you are wrong, Charlotte. It was the evening of the same day. We met in the early morning." "It sounds like a children's party with an exchange of those snapping-mottoes." "Duke is nearly twenty-eight, you know, Charlotte; so it is simply nonsense to jeer at him. You ought to be able to imagine what sort of things would be said between two persons mutually attracted to each other--when you remember that he was born on February 14th and my name is Valentine. The coincidence simply put ideas into our heads; but I won't go on if you don't sympathize." "I don't actually disapprove, not at heart. Now, what has his birthday got to do with to-morrow and St. Thomas?" "Why, I cabled him as soon as we arrived at Barbados: '_What would you like for a birthday present from the West Indies?_' I knew that he would remember we met on St. Valentine's day and an answer could reach me at St. Thomas." "Couldn't you buy him a souvenir without inquiring at great expense what he'd prefer?" "Ye-es; but I thought it was a nice, affectionate question." "Well?" "Well, he cabled one word, Charlotte." "I guessed that the moment you quoted your message. When you asked: '_What shall I bring you from the West Indies?_' Duke promptly answered, '_Yourself._'" "Charlotte, you are positively uncanny! How did you manage to hit upon it?" "It doesn't take as much intellect as you fancy. You are as transparent as a plate of glass. Well, when he said '_Yourself_,' how did you answer him?" "It's the only thing I don't like to tell you, but I must. I reflected a full half-hour at Barbados. It was one of those heavenly moonlight nights not suitable for reflection. Then I wrote a message and sent it to the office by one of the colored waiters so that the hotel people shouldn't read it. It said" (and here she turned her face away from me): "'_Deliveries from the West Indies are uncertain and expensive; come and get me._'--Do you think that was forward?" I laughed irresistibly and a long time. "It certainly was not backward, but it was delicious," I said at length, wiping the tears from my eyes. "However, he seems as impetuous and tempestuous as you, so perhaps it doesn't matter."