"Oh, don't flatten your ears and show your teeth," protested Portlaw amiably. "I only supposed you had enough--with such a salary--to give yourself a little rope on a trip like this, considering you've nobody but yourself to look out for, and that _I_ do that and pay you heavily for the privilege"--his voice had become a mumble--"and all you do is to take vacations in New York or sit on a horse and watch an army of men plant trout and pheasants, and cut out ripe timber--O hell!" "_What_ did you say?" Portlaw became good-humouredly matter of fact: "I _said_ 'hell,' Louis--which meant, 'what's the use of squabbling.' It also means that you are going to have what you require as a matter of course; so come on down to my state-room and let us figure it up before Jim Wayward begins to turn restless and limp toward the card-room." As they turned and strolled forward, Malcourt nudged him: "Look at the fireworks over Lake Worth," he said; "probably Palm Beach's welcome to her new and beardless prophet." "It's one of their cheap Venetian fetes," muttered Portlaw. "I know 'em; they're rather amusing. If we weren't sailing in an hour we'd go. No doubt Hamil's in it already; probably Cardross put him next to a bunch of dreams and he's right in it at this very moment." "With the girl in the red handkerchief," added Malcourt. "I wish we had time." "I believe I've seen that girl somewhere," mused Portlaw. "Perhaps you have; there are all kinds at Palm Beach, even yours, and," he added with his easy impudence, "I expect to preserve my notions concerning every one of them. Ho! Look at that sheaf of sky-rockets, Billy! Zip! Whir-r! Bang! Great is Diana of the Ephesians!--bless her heart!" "Going up like Garret Hamil's illusions," said Portlaw, sentimentally. "I wonder if he sees 'em and considers the moral they are writing across the stars. O slush! Life is like a stomach; if you fill it too full it hurts you. What about _that_ epigram, Louis? What about it?" The other's dark, graceful head was turned toward the fiery fete on shore, and his busy thoughts were with that lithe, dripping figure he had seen through the sea-glasses, climbing into a distant boat. For the figure reminded him of a girl he had known very well when the world was younger; and the memory was not wholly agreeable. CHAPTER III AN ADVANCE Hamil stood under the cocoanut palms at the lake's edge and watched the lagoon where thousands of coloured lanterns moved on crafts, invisible except when revealed in the glare of the rushing rockets.