“I didn’t know you could save anything,” she said, weakly.

“Come now, Peggy, that is too much.”

“I didn’t mean to hurt you.  But you must not forget, Monty, that there are other years to follow this one.  Do you know what I mean?”

“Peggy, dear, please don’t lecture me,” he begged, so piteously that she could not be serious.

“The class is dismissed for to-day, Monty,” she said, airily.  “But the professor knows his duty and won’t let you off so easily next time.”

CHAPTER XIX

ONE HERO AND ANOTHER

At Gibraltar, Monty was handed an ominous-looking cablegram which he opened tremblingly.

To Montgomery Brewster,

Private Yacht Flitter, Gibraltar.

There is an agitation to declare for free silver.  You may have twice as much to spend.  Hooray.

Jones.

To which Monty responded: 

Defeat the measure at any cost.  The more the merrier, and charge it to me.  Brewster.  P.S.  Please send many cables and mark them collect.

The Riviera season was fast closing, and the possibilities suggested by Monte Carlo were too alluring to the host to admit of a long stop at Gibraltar.  But the DeMilles had letters to one of the officers of the garrison, and Brewster could not overlook the opportunity to give an elaborate dinner.  The success of the affair may best be judged by the fact that the “Flitter’s” larder required an entirely new stock the next day.  The officers and ladies of the garrison were asked, and Monty would have entertained the entire regiment with beer and sandwiches if his friends had not interfered.

“It might cement the Anglo-American alliance,” argued Gardner, “but your pocketbook needs cementing a bit more.”

Yet the pocketbook was very wide open, and Gardner’s only consolation lay in a tall English girl whom he took out to dinner.  For the others there were many compensations, as the affair was brilliant and the new element a pleasant relief from the inevitable monotony.

It was after the guests had gone ashore that Monty discovered Mr. and Mrs. Dan holding a tete-a-tete in the stern of the boat.

“I am sorry to break this up,” he interrupted, “but as the only conscientious chaperon in the party, I must warn you that your behavior is already being talked about.  The idea of a sedate old married couple sitting out here alone watching the moon!  It’s shocking.”

“I yield to the host,” said Dan, mockingly.  “But I shall be consumed with jealousy until you restore her to me.”

Monty noticed the look in Mrs. Dan’s eyes as she watched her husband go, and marked a new note in her voice as she said, “How this trip is bringing him out.”

“He has just discovered,” Monty observed, “that the club is not the only place in the world.”