the verandah, and said doubtfully:

"I say, captain, I have your word? You--you--won't turn round?"

Heavens! The fright he gave me. Behind his tone of doubt there was
something desperate and menacing. The infatuated ass. But I was equal to
the situation.

"My dear Falk," I said, beginning to lie with a glibness and effrontery
that amazed me even at the time--"confidence for confidence." (He had
made no confidences.) "I will tell you that I am already engaged to an
extremely charming girl at home, and so you understand. . . ."

He caught my hand and wrung it in a crushing grip.

"Pardon me. I feel it every day more difficult to live alone . . ."

"On rice and fish," I interrupted smartly, giggling with the sheer
nervousness of a danger escaped.

He dropped my hand as if it had become suddenly red hot. A moment of
profound silence ensued, as though something extraordinary had happened.

"I promise you to obtain Hermann's consent," I faltered out at last, and
it seemed to me that he could not help seeing through that humbugging
promise. "If there's anything else to get over I shall endeavour
to stand by you," I conceded further, feeling somehow defeated and
over-borne; "but you must do your best yourself."

"I have been unfortunate once," he muttered unemotionally, and turning