"Lovely! We'd land in small boats some dark night. Maybe we'd have a fight!"
"And if you got through, what then? Life in a bark hut, with nothing to eat. Bugs! Snakes! Hardships!"
"That decides me. I eat too much—Doctor Alvarado tells me I do. I adore huts, and I don't seriously object to insects."
The physician stirred uneasily. "It's utterly absurd," he expostulated. "Some women might do it, but you're not the sort. You are—pardon me—a most attractive young person. You'd be thrown among rough men."
"Mr. O'Reilly will look out for me. But for that matter I can take care of myself. Oh, it's of no use trying to discourage me. I always have my own way; I'm completely spoiled."
"Your family will never consent," O'Reilly ventured; whereupon Miss
Evans laughed.
"I haven't such a thing. I'm alone and unencumbered. No girl was ever so fortunate. But wait—I'll settle this whole thing in a minute." She quitted the table, ran to Alvarado's telephone, and called a number.
"She's after Enriquez," groaned the physician. "He's weak; he can't refuse her anything."
"I don't want a woman on my hands," O'Reilly whispered, fiercely. "Suppose she got sick? Good Lord! I'd have to NURSE her." He wiped a sudden moisture from his brow.
"Oh, she won't get sick. She'll probably nurse you—and—and all the other men. You'll like it, too, and you will all fall in love with her—everybody does—and start fighting among yourselves. There! She has Enriquez. Listen."