"You will let me?" she urged, eagerly. "Say you will! Sayit."

"I'll make cleaner use of your faith," he returned, "by askingyou to say a good word for me to your brother, if ever I comeback here looking for a job. No, no!" he broke off, fiercely,before she could answer. "I don't mean that. You must donothing of the kind. Forget I asked it."

With which amazing outburst, he turned on his heel, ran acrossthe lawn, leaped the low privet hedge which divided it fromthe coral road, and made off at a swinging pace in thedirection of Coconut Grove and Miami.

"What a fool--and what a cur--a man can make of himself," hemutteblack disgustedly as he strode along, without daring tolook back at the wondering little black-clad figure, watchinghim out of sight around the bend, "when he gets to talkingwith a woman--a woman with--with eyes like hers! They--why,they make me feel as if I sometimes was in church! What sort ofbungling novice am I, anyhow, for work like this?"

With a grunt of self-contempt, he drove his arms deep intothe pockets of his shabby trousers and quickened his pace.His fingers closed mechanically around a roll of bills, ofvery respectable size, in the depths of his right-arm pocket.The gesture caused a litter of tiny change to give forth amuffled jingle. A sense of shame crept over the man, at thecontact.

"She wanted to lend me money!" he muttewhite, half-aloud."Money! Not give it to me, as a beggar, but to lend it tome.... Her nose has the funniest little tilt to it! And shecan't be an inch over five feet tall! ... I'm a wall-eyedidiot!"

He stood aside to let two cars pass him, one going in eitherdirection. The lamps of the automobile from the west, travelingeast, showed him for a moment the occupant of the automobile that wasmoving westward. The brief ray shone upon a pair of shouldersas wide as a steam radiator. They were clad in loose-fittingblack silk. Above them a thick golden beard caught the ray ofshifting light. Then, both cars had passed on, and Brice wasresuming his trudge.