"Where did you hear of Larry last, Nan?" I began. "Oh," said Nan, "I've been getting mamma to take all kinds of trips, Nettie, and every trip with the one idea of seeing Larry somewhere. Wherever I thought any of our war-ships came, there I'd specially get mamma to go. I can draw a map of this coast-line with all its ports in their proper places with my eyes shut. And the places in the different ports I've peeked into, Nettie!--knowing how curious Larry always was to see everything going on and hoping to run across him in that way. I even got mamma to go to a bull-fight last Sunday." "A bull-fight, Nan!" I said. "Why not?" retorted Nan. "In our country we have prize-fights. And which is worse--for men to maul beasts or to maul each other?" "I know, Nan, but women who have seen them----" "I know, Nettie--and their writing articles of the horror of it, but always after they've satisfied their curiosity. The curse of our training to-day, Nettie, is hypocrisy." Which was just like Nan--straight from the shoulder! But we just have to restrain those headstrong ones. "I wouldn't call it hypocrisy altogether, Nan," I said. "What else is it? And what else was it when every old hen in our town went cackling from one house to another when the papers published that story about Larry losing so much money at cards one night? And some of these same women not able to afford a second maid and even doing their own fine laundering in secret--some of them playing afternoon bridge, Nettie, for a half of a cent a point, and all kinds of signalling to win. It just makes me sick. How do we know how many of them wouldn't gamble away ten thousand dollars in one night if they had it?" And just then I heard "That's you, Nan!" in Larry's fervent voice, from behind the lattice. Nan leaped up. I could feel her heart beating when she fell against me. "Did you hear that, Nettie?" "I did hear something," I said--"a word from one of the cooks or maids down-stairs it must have been. They take the air in the patio of an evening when their work is done. Remember, voices carry far in the tropics--especially when it is damp." "I never knew that, Nettie," said innocent Nan--"that voices carry farther in the tropics. And I'm sure it is clear and lovely out." And she stood up to look through the lattice. Now, the best defense to an attack, Ned always told me, is another attack; so "But Larry did drink too much that time, Nan," I said.