"How could she know?" Randy demanded; "she dropped it from the balcony."
"And I was under the balcony"--George's laugh was tantalising,--"a
patient Romeo."
"You picked it up."
"I picked it up. And she knew that I did. Didn't she tell you?"
She had not told him. He remembered now her unwillingness to have him
search, for it.
He had no answer for George. But again he held out his hand.
"She will be glad to get it. Will you give it to me?"
"She told me I might--keep it."
"Keep it----?"
"For remembrance."
There was a tense pause. "If that is true," said Randy, "there is, of
course, nothing else for me to say."
He turned to go, but George stopped him. "Wait a minute. You are
going to marry her?"
"Yes."
"And she is very--rich."
"Her money does not enter into the matter."
"Some people might think it did. There are those who might be unkind
enough to call you a--fortune-hunter."
"I shall be called nothing of the kind by those who know me."
"But there are so many who don't know you."
"I wonder," said Randy, fiercely, "why I am staying here and letting
you say such things to me. There is nothing you can say which can hurt
me. Becky knows--God knows, that I wish she were as poor as poverty.
Perhaps money doesn't mean as much to us as it does to yon. I wish I
had it, yes--so that I could give it to her. But love for us means a
tent in the desert--a hut on a mountain--it can never mean what we
could buy with money."
"Does love mean to her," George's tone was incisive, "a tent in the
desert, a hut on a mountain?"
Randy's anger flamed. "I think," he said, "that I should beg Becky's
pardon for bringing her name into this at all---- And now, will you
give me her fan?"
"When she asks for it--yes."
Randy was breathing heavily. "Will you give me her--fan----"
The mist from the fountain blew cool against his hot cheeks. The water
which old Neptune poured from his shell flashed white under the stars.
"Let her ask for it----" George's laugh was light.
It was that laugh which made Randy see red. He caught George's wrists
suddenly in his hands. "Drop it."
George stopped laughing. "Let her ask for it," he said again.
Randy twisted the wrists. It was a cruel trick. But his Indian blood
was uppermost.
"Drop it," he said, with another twist, and the fan fell.
But Randy was not satisfied. "Do you think," he said, "that I am
through with you? What you need is tar and feathers, but failing
that----" he did not finish his sentence. He caught George around the
body and began to push him back towards the fountain.
George fought doggedly--but Randy was strong with the muscular strength
of youth and months of military training.
"I'll kill you for this," George kept saying.
"No," said Randy, conserving his breath, "they don't--do
it--in--these--days----"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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