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The searchlight flashed on and the hotel garden was left in darkness.

A chill sense of loss swept down upon Merefleet, but the impression did not last. He threw away his cigar with an impetuosity oddly out of keeping with his somewhat rugged and unimpressionable nature. A hot desire to see that face again at close quarters possessed him–the face of the loveliest woman he had ever beheld.

He reached the hotel and sat down in the vestibule. Evidently this marvellous woman was staying in the place. He watched the doorway with a strange feeling of excitement. He had not been so moved for years.

At length there came a quick, light tread. The next moment he was gazing again upon the vision that had charmed him out of all commonsense. She stood, framed in the night, white and pure and gloriously, most surpassingly, beautiful. Merefleet felt his heart throb heavily. He sat in dead silence, looking at her with fascinated eyes. Had he called her a Greek goddess? He had better have said angel. For this was no earth-born loveliness.

She stood for several seconds looking towards him with shining, radiant eyes. Then she moved forward. Merefleet’s eyes were fixed upon her. He could not have looked away just then. He was absurdly uncertain of himself.

She paused near him with the light pouring full upon her. Her eyes met his with a momentary questioning. Then ruthlessly she broke the spell.

“Say, now!” she said in brisk, high tones. “Isn’t that searchlight thing a real cute invention?”

CHAPTER III

Merefleet shivered at the words. He did not answer her. The shock had been too great. He sat stiff and silent, waiting for more.

The American girl looked at him with a pitying little smile. She was wholly unabashed.

“I reckon the man who invented searchlights was no fool,” she remarked. “I just wish that quaint old battleship would come right along here. It’s not exciting, this place.”

“New Silverstrand would be more to your taste, I fancy,” said Merefleet, reluctantly forced to speak.

The smile on the beautiful face developed into a wicked little gleam of amusement. “That’s so, I daresay,” said the high voice. “But you see, I wasn’t consulted. I’ve just got to go where I’m taken.”

She sank into a chair opposite Merefleet and leant forward.

Merefleet sat perfectly rigid. There was a marvellous witchery about the clasped hands and bent head before him. But he did not mean to let his idiotic sentimentality carry him away again. So long as the enchantress was speaking, the spell was wholly impotent. Therefore he should not suffer her to relapse into silence. Yet–how he hated that high, piercing voice! It was like the desecration of something sacred. It made him shrink in involuntary protest.

“Say!” suddenly exclaimed his companion, looking at him sharply. “Aren’t you Bernard Merefleet of New York City?”

Merefleet frowned unconsciously at the notoriety that was his.

“I was in New York until recently,” he said with some curtness.

“Exactly what I said,” she returned triumphantly. “A friend of mine snap-shotted you walking up Fifth Avenue. He said to me: ‘Here’s Merefleet the gold-king, one of the cutest men in U.S.A. His first name is Bernard. So we call him the Big Bear for short.’ Ever heard your pet name before?”

“Never,” said Merefleet stiffly, with a suggestive hand on the evening paper. He wished she would leave him alone. With his eyes averted at length, the charm of her presence ceased to attract him. He even fancied he resented her freedom. But the girl only laughed carelessly. She had not the smallest intention of moving.

“Well,” she said, and he imagined momentarily that her abominable accent was deliberately assumed. “I guess you’ve heard it now, Mr. Bernard Merefleet. Smart, I call it. What’s your opinion?”

Merefleet started a little at the audacity of this speech. And again he was looking at her. There was a funny little smile twitching the corners of her mouth. Her beauty was irresistible. Even the iron barrier of his churlish avoidance was severely shaken. She was hard to withstand, this witch with her friendly eyes and frank speech, despite her jarring voice.