“Again there was a long pause before there came an answer. I was puzzling just what I ought to do--whether to come out and announce myself, or stay quietly where I was. You see, having unintentionally listened so far, I was embarrassed and didn’t know quite what to do. Before I could make up my mind, Captain Mortimer again spoke. “‘Ralph,’ he said, ‘I’ll be quite frank with you. Before I came to this cursed Court, my experiences with women had been the ordinary ones of a soldier. I hadn’t been here a week, though, before I met one who appealed to me as no other woman ever had. No need for me to name her. You know whom I mean.’ “‘The women here do seem to have a decidedly queer effect upon a man,’ answered Captain Swords. ‘I have noticed that. But I didn’t mean to interrupt. Go on, Stanley.’ “‘Ralph,’ said the other one, and his voice seemed to me to shake as he spoke, ‘I’m an infernal fool. I loved that woman--loved her passionately, reverently, madly. Her presence, her voice, her touch seemed to open the gates of heaven to me--the world was different from what it ever had looked to me before. It was heaven and yet there was a hell in it, too. Ralph, I tell you, man, if you’d be happy, never love a woman like that.’ “‘Poor old fellow!’ said Captain Swords.” “Excuse me, Trixy, dear,” exclaimed Dorothy, suddenly wheeling her chair, “but the light hurts me. You won’t mind my turning this way, will you? No, dear, don’t move. I like your voice to come to me that way--from behind me. I’m listening. Continue.” “Very well, let me see where I was,” resumed Beatrice. “Oh, yes; Captain Swords said: ‘Poor old fellow!’ and then the other continued: