“Good!  Find the street and number, quick!  I’m going a-wooing!  Say!  When these Spaniards court a girl they hang around her window and roll their eyes, don’t they?  Me for that!  I’ll haunt the Torres neighborhood until she shows herself, or die in the attempt.  I’ll play their game.  I’ll get a guitar, I’ll—­Oh, from this moment I’m a Spaniard of the Spaniards.  I’m the incarnation of ten thousand fiery cavaliers.  I’ll stand in front of her house until she sends me a chair.  Maria Tor—­What the deuce are you loafing for?  Get a move on; hustle those kidney feet of yours.  Don’t come back until you have located her; for to-night—­ah, blessed night!  My life’s romance begins in earnest.  Get out!”

Allan fled while Kirk proceeded to dream over his breakfast of bacon and cold-storage eggs.

He was beaming when he appeared at the office.  He sang, he whistled, he performed his duties with a joyous uproar that interfered seriously with all around him and set the whole place in confusion.  Nor did his spirits lessen when, later in the day, Allan informed him that the residence of Senor Luis Torres, whom the gods had selected as father to the delectable Maria, was at number 89 Avenida Norte.

Anthony did not taste his dinner that evening.  As darkness settled he planted himself conspicuously on the corner opposite No. 89 and began to study the premises.

It was a trifle disappointing to note that Chiquita lived in such poor style; the place was not at all impressive.  The first floor of the building was given over to a Chinese bazaar, and the upper story seemed neither extremely clean nor at all modern.  But, although this clashed a bit with his preconceived ideas, he knew that many of the nicest Panamanian families lived in modest quarters.

His natural impulse was to apply boldly at the door, but he had learned something of local customs, and he determined to give no possible ground for offence.  After she had recognized him and seen his willingness to follow the habit of her Spanish suitors, it would be feasible, perhaps, to adopt a more Americanized method.  Meanwhile, he must run no risk of antagonizing her people.

In the Central American scheme of courtship patience plays a large part.  It is the young man’s practice to martyr himself until the sight of him becomes such a reproach that the family must perforce express its sympathy.  Although this procedure struck Anthony as ludicrous in the extreme, its novelty was not without charm, and he had lived through such a period of torturing uncertainty that the mere fact of the girl’s presence was compensation enough for his pains.