little things afforded him keen pleasure. He set the carafe
down--softly--only to ask by way of reply: "Rimmle, what is it always
brings men back?"

Rimmle laid his head to one side and nodded shrewdly. "As far as my
experience goes, Captain, it is one of three things."

"And which of the three is my failing?" Captain Blaise was absently
filling their glasses.

"M-m--It cannot be money--you never cared for that. You who have made
fortunes and spent them as fast as you made them--no, it cannot be
money. And then your newly acquired property in the States--"

"_My_ newly acquired--What of that?"

"Why, the rumor is out that you fell heir to a great estate in the
States--on the banks of the Mississippi or the Ohio, or some outlandish
name of a river in the States."

"Oh, a rumor! Go on."

"And as for the drink--it must be a great occasion, indeed, Captain,
when you take more than is good for a man. And so--"

"We can never take too much drink in good company, Rimmle. And so drink
up--here's health! And so you think it must be--" He smiled faintly at
the agent. "And yet who should know better than you that all the gold I
ever gave for a woman's favor would not suffice to keep the poorest of
them in cambric handkerchiefs."