Page 109 (1/1)

Leslie Branch was asleep when O'Reilly returned to their room, but he awoke sufficiently to listen to the latter's breathless account of the dinner-party

"I'irl just bounced right into the ain"

"You say she's young, and PRETTY, and--RICH?" Leslie was incredulous

"Y-yes! All of that"

"Uood cocktail"

"Why?"

"Because you're drunk and delirious They don't coly"

"I tell you this girl is young and--stunning"

"Of course she is," Branch agreed, soothingly "Now go to sleep and don't think any ht in thePerhaps it never happened; perhaps you didn't meet any woman at all" The speaker yawned and turned over

"Don't be an ass," Johnnie cried, i to do with a woman on our hands?"

"WE? Don't divide her withto do? The truth is plain, this Miss Evans is in love with you and you don't know it She sees in you her soul mate Well, if you don't want her, I want her I'll eat her medicine I'll even--marry the poor old soul, if she's rich"

O'Reilly arose early the nextthat he could convince Mr Enriquez of the folly of allowing Norine Evans to have her way By the light of day Miss Evans's project seemed more hare-brained than ever, and he suspected that Enriquez had acquiesced in it only because of a natural inability to refuse anything to a pretty woman--that was typically Cuban But his respect for Miss Evans's energy and initiative deepened when, on arriving at 56 New Street, he discovered that she had forestalled him and was even then closeted with the man he had coirl finally appeared, with Enriquez in tow, for the man's face was radiant

"It's all settled," she announced, at sight of O'Reilly "I've speeded them up"

"You're an early riser," the latter remarked "I hardly expected-- "

Enriquez broke in "Such enthusiasm! Such ardor! She whirls a person off his feet"

"It seems that the Junta lacks money for another expedition, so I've made up the deficit We'll be off in a week"

"Really? Then you're actually--going?"

"Of course"

"It was like a gift from Heaven," Enriquez cried "Our last embarrassment is removed, and--"

But Johnnie interrupted him "You're crazy, both of you," he declared, irritably "Cuba is no place for an Aer of capture on the way down as the hardship after she gets there and the fact that she will be thrown a all sorts of men"