"But don't you want to have a voice in your own affairs?" he eagerly urged. "Do you really want your relatives to tell you whom to meet, whom to love, and whom to marry?" She answered, frankly: "Sometimes I feel that way. Yet at other times I am sure they must know best." "I don't believe you are the sort to shut your eyes and do exactly as you're told." "I do rebel sometimes. I protest, but it is only the American blood in me." "If you'd learn to know me a little bit, maybe you'd enjoy having me around the house." "But I cannot know you, any more than you can know me," she cried, with a little gesture of despair at his dullness. "Don't you see--before we could get acquainted nicely people would be talking?" "Let's try. You're living at the country place again, aren't you? Suppose I should get lost some day--tomorrow, for instance?" "No, no! Listen. It is the warning bell, and we must return." The crowd was filing into the theatre now. They fell in behind Senor Garavel and Mrs. Cortlandt. "I'm going hunting again tomorrow," prophesied Kirk, "and I'm almost certain to lose my way-about three o'clock." "You should take with you a guide." "That's not a bad idea. I'd like to talk it over with you. Suppose we have another stroll after the next act?" "I shall be with my father. Never before have I enjoyed so much liberty." She sighed gratefully. "Oh, I detest your blamed, straitlaced Spanish customs," he cried, hotly. "What do they amount to, anyhow? I love you. I do, I do-" She laughed and darted to her father's side. "Don't you think Miss Garavel is a pretty girl?" Mrs. Cortlandt questioned, as they strolled toward their box. "She's a dream." Anthony's tone left nothing unsaid. "You got along together capitally. Most of the senoritas are impossible." "By the way, what is her name?" "Gertrudis. Rather pleasing, I think." Kirk thought so, too. In fact, it pleased him so greatly that he thought of nothing else during the entire second act of "La Tosca." It was even sweeter than the music of her hesitating accent. When, after an age, the curtain fell for a second time, he escaped from his companions, mumbling some excuse or other, and made haste to find her again. But as he approached he felt a sudden pang of jealous rage. Ramon Alfarez was beside her, and the two were chatting with an appearance of intimacy that made him furious. Close at hand stood Garavel, deep in conversation with Colonel Jolson. "Ah, Ramon, I wish you to meet Mr. Anthony," said Gertrudis. "So! You have met before?" "In Colon," Kirk explained, while Alfarez scorched him with his eyes. "Mr. Alfarez was very hospitable to me." "Yes," the Spaniard exclaimed. "It is my great regret that Senor Ant'ony did not remain for longer." "Ramon is with the President's party this evening. He is Senor Galleo's Secretary, you know." "I informed you concerning those good fortunes some time since, eh?" Ramon's insulting stare made Kirk long to take him by the throat.