“Dear old Caliph John!” she crooned. “He's never had a woman to understand his funny ways and appreciate them and take care of him, has he?” She patted his cheek. “And bless his simple old heart, he would rather give up his love than be false to his friend. Yes, indeed. Johnny Webster respects 'No Shooting' signs when he sees them, but he tells fibs and pretends to be very stupid when he really isn't. So you wouldn't be false to Billy--eh, dear? I'm glad to know that, because the man who cannot be false to his friend can never be false to his wife.”
He crushed her down to him and held her there for a long time. “My dear,” he said presently, “isn't there something you have to say to me?”
“I love you, John,” she whispered, and sealed the sweet confession with a true lover's kiss.
“All's well with the world,” John Stuart Webster announced when he could use his lips once more for conversation. “And,” he added, “owing to the fact that I started a trifle late in life, I believe I could stand a little more of the same.”
The door opened and Ricardo looked in on them. “Killjoy!” Webster growled. “Old Killjoy the Thirteenth, King of Sobrante. Is this a surprise to you?”
“Not a bit of it, Jack. I knew it was due.”
Ricardo came over and kissed his sister. “Don't be a lobster, Jack,” he protested. “I dislike foolish questions.” And he pressed his friend's hand with a fervour that testified to his pleasure.
“I'm sorry to crowd in at a time like this, Jack,” he continued, with a hug for Dolores, “but Mr. What-you-may-call-him, the American consul, has called to pay his respects. As a fellow-citizen of yours, he is vitally interested in your welfare. Would you care to receive him for a few minutes?”
“One minute will do,” Webster declared with emphasis. “Show the human slug up, Rick.”
Mr. Lemuel Tolliver tripped breezily in with outstretched hand. “My dear Mr. Webster,” he began, but Webster cut him short with a peremptory gesture.
“Listen, friend Tolliver,” he said. “The only reason I received you was to tell you I'm going to remain in this country awhile and help develop it. I may even conclude to grow up with it. I shall not, of course, renounce my American citizenship; and of course, as an American citizen, I am naturally interested in the man my country sends to Sobrante to represent it. I might as well be frank and tell you that you won't do. I called on you once to do your duty, and you weren't there; I told you then I might have something to say about your job later on, and now I'm due to say it. Mr. Tolliver, I'm the power behind the throne in this little Jim-crow country, and to quote your own elegant phraseology, you, as American consul, are _nux vomica_ to the Sobrantean government. Moreover, as soon as the Sobrantean ambassador reaches Washington, he's going to tell the President that you are, and then the President will be courteous enough to remove you. In the meantime, fare thee well, Mr. Consul.”