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 fête 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