Part 33 (2/2)

”Is that the end of the yarn?” asked the colonel.

”Who in life knows what the end of anything is? This is not a story out of a book.” Courtlandt accepted a fresh cigar from the box which Rao pa.s.sed to him, and dropped his dead weed into the ash-bowl.

”Has he given up?” asked Abbott, his voice strangely unfamiliar in his own ears.

”A man can struggle just so long against odds, then he wins or becomes broken. Women are not logical; generally they permit themselves to be guided by impulse rather than by reason. This man I am telling you about was proud; perhaps too proud. It is a shameful fact, but he ran away.

True, he wrote letter after letter, but all these were returned unopened.

Then he stopped.”

”A woman would a good deal rather believe circ.u.mstantial evidence than not. Humph!” The colonel primed his pipe and relighted it. ”She couldn't have been worth much.”

”Worth much!” cried Abbott. ”What do you imply by that?”

”No man will really give up a woman who is really worth while, that is, of course, admitting that your man, Courtlandt, _is_ a man. Perhaps, though, it was his fault. He was not persistent enough, maybe a bit spineless. The fact that he gave up so quickly possibly convinced her that her impressions were correct. Why, I'd have followed her day in and day out, year after year; never would I have let up until I had proved to her that she had been wrong.”

”The colonel is right,” Abbott approved, never taking his eyes off Courtlandt, who was apparently absorbed in the contemplation of the bread crumbs under his fingers.

”And more, by hook or crook, I'd have dragged in the other woman by the hair and made her confess.”

”I do not doubt it, Colonel,” responded Courtlandt, with a dry laugh. ”And that would really have been the end of the story. The heroine of this rambling tale would then have been absolutely certain of collusion between the two.”

”That is like a woman,” the Barone agreed, and he knew something about them. ”And where is this man now?”

”Here,” said Courtlandt, pus.h.i.+ng back his chair and rising. ”I am he.” He turned his back upon them and sought the garden.

Tableau!

”Dash me!” cried the colonel, who, being the least interested personally, was first to recover his speech.

The Barone drew in his breath sharply. Then he looked at Abbott.

”I suspected it,” replied Abbott to the mute question. Since the episode of that morning his philosophical outlook had broadened. He had fought a duel and had come out of it with flying colors. As long as he lived he was certain that the petty affairs of the day were never again going to disturb him.

”Let him be,” was the colonel's suggestion, adding a gesture in the direction of the cas.e.m.e.nt door through which Courtlandt had gone. ”He's as big a man as Nora is a woman. If he has returned with the determination of winning her, he will.”

They did not see Courtlandt again. After a few minutes of restless to-and-froing, he proceeded down to the landing, helped himself to the colonel's motor-boat, and returned to Bellaggio. At the hotel he asked for the duke, only to be told that the duke and madame had left that morning for Paris. Courtlandt saw that he had permitted one great opportunity to slip past. He gave up the battle. One more good look at her, and he would go away. The odds had been too strong for him, and he knew that he was broken.

When the motor-boat came back, Abbott and the Barone made use of it also.

They crossed in silence, heavy-hearted.

On landing Abbott said: ”It is probable that I shall not see you again this year. I am leaving to-morrow for Paris. It's a great world, isn't it, where they toss us around like dice? Some throw sixes and others deuces.

And in this game you and I have lost two out of three.”

”I shall return to Rome,” replied the Barone. ”My long leave of absence is near its end.”

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