"On and off, a year or more. I go and come. I make short excursions round about for a week or so sometimes, but I always return here." "You entered a firm on the other side, did you not?" "No; I was about to do so." "And why didn't you? Were they cheats?" "No." "Did they fail?" "No." "Did _you_ fail? Did you lose any money in any way?" "No, what makes you ask?" "Because I want to find out what the trouble is with you. You are not in love?" "Good God! No!" exclaimed George almost fiercely, as he rose, strode to the window, and stood there looking out at the moon. The bitterness of his tone, the abruptness of his action, told the observant Ned that unwittingly he had touched the right chord. He indulged in a silent whistle to himself, and shook his head as a good-hearted physician might over a hopeless case. Ned confessed himself a bad hand at ministering to the love complaint. That was the only ill for which he would advocate the calling in of a female physician. For heart disease of this nature, Ned would, on his own authority, grant a diploma to any suitable lady doctor; for he was convinced of the utter inability of man to handle such a delicate affair. So he shook his head despondently. Whilst these thoughts were passing through the brain of the now very wide-awake Mr. Fitzgerald, George seemed to have recovered his usual dead calm, and, leaving the window as he proceeded to light a fresh cigar, inquired, with a smile that seemed to anticipate a characteristic answer: "Ned, have you ever been in love?" It was now Ned's turn to rise. He tore about the room frantically a moment, dashed his hand through his hair, and finally, coming to a stand-still before his amused friend, burst out: "In love! Have I ever been in love? What a question to ask a man! Don't you know my name? Did you ever hear of a Fitzgerald or any other of his race who had not been in love? Why, man, I fall in love every day of my life. How can I help it when every woman I see for five minutes falls in love with me. I might say I have lost my heart so often that I don't think there's a bit of it left to lose now; and still I go on falling in love by sheer force of habit." And Ned "hove to" with a comic burst of despair. "You are a happy man, Ned," said George, laughing. "Happy?" questioned Ned, half to himself, and as though the idea had struck him for the first time in his life. "Well, I suppose I am. I don't see much advantage to be gained by being otherwise." "Nor I; but, for all that, people differently constructed from your fortunate self cannot always help being otherwise."