Gwent went on without heeding her.

"She, too, is very clever,--she is also an inventor and a scientist-
-and if it was she who came here--(I daresay it was!) it was
probably because she wished to ask his advice and opinion on some of
the difficult things she studies--"

Manella snapped her fingers as though they were castanets.

"Ah--bah!" she exclaimed--"Not at all! No difficult thing takes a
woman out by moonlight, all in soft white and diamonds to see a
man!--no difficult thing at all, except to tempt him to love! Yes!
That is the way it is done! I begin to learn! And you, if you are
not his friend, what are you here for?"

Gwent began to feel impatient with this irrepressible "prize"
beauty.

"I came to see him at his own request on business;" he answered
curtly--"The business is concluded and I go away to-morrow."

Manella was silent. The low chirping of a cicada hidden in the
myrtle thicket made monotonous sweetness on the stillness.

Moved by some sudden instinct which he did not attempt to explain to
himself, Gwent decided to venture on a little paternal advice.

"Now don't you fly off in a rage at what I'm going to say,"--he
began, slowly--"You're only a child to me--so I'm just taking the
liberty of talking to you as a child. Don't give too much of your