Vanna had already been made love to by more than one impulsive Italian, but she now discovered that this Englishman, ordinarily so undemonstrative and phlegmatic, could, the occasion being given him, rise to a height of passionate fervour which transformed him for the time being into a veritable son of the sunny South. Taking both the girl’s unresisting hands in his, and devouring her with his eyes, he ended with the words, “Giovanna, will you be mine?” No faintest tinge of superadded emotion flushed the clear olive of Vanna’s cheek, but the heavy fringes of her eyelids lifted and the midnight orbs behind them gave back Alec look for look. Then the full ripe lips curved into a siren-like smile, the cool brown fingers softly returned her lover’s clasp, and in a whisper came the words: “I will be yours.” CHAPTER V. AT ONE FELL BLOW We are under other skies and the time is again two years later. “Alec Clare, by all that’s wonderful!” The exclamation came from one of two men who, happening to be bent on getting into a street car at the same moment, found themselves unexpectedly face to face. It was followed next moment by a hearty hand-grip, and then the long-parted acquaintances—friends, in the best sense of the word, they could hardly have been termed—sat down side by side. It was at Pineapple City, a thriving and intensely go-ahead township on the borders of Lake Michigan, that the meeting just recorded took place. Denis Boyd and Alec Clare had been intimate at college, without being exactly chums. Their fathers had been friends of long standing, and it seemed only natural to the two young men that they should copy their sires’ example. Boyd had read far more assiduously than the heir of Withington Chase had ever cared to do: his father was far from being a rich man and he was anxious about his degree. Their college career had come to an end at the same time, they had gone down together and had parted with mutual good wishes and an implied promise to meet again in town later on, since which time till now they had not set eyes on each other. “And now tell me what fortune, good or bad, has landed you in this out-of-the-way spot,” began Boyd. “Of course I assume that, like myself, you are merely a bird of passage.” “On the contrary, this place is my home. I am engaged in business here.” Denis Boyd gave vent to a low whistle. “Strange how things turn out, is it not?” continued Alec. “But before I add to your surprise, suppose you make your own confession, and tell me how it comes to pass that you happen to be here.”