Page:Rowland--The Mountain of Fears.djvu/187

  Did you ever see a more beautiful woman, Leyden? Jove, what hair! what a figure!'

" 'I find the husband more interesting,' said I. 'Any white woman would be beautiful if one stood her up against the shadow of the equator.'

"He grunted like a peccary. 'Her husband?—her proprietor!— it's gross flattery to speak of that wreck as her husband. What right has a cadaver like that to a wife? A widow would be a jolly lot more becoming. What's he got to hold her with!'

" 'A yacht, a title, a good mind and a wedding ring, ' said I.

" 'Might hold some women,' he growled; 'can't hold that one,' and he took himself off to bed.

"We went aboard the yacht the following night, and I do not think that I have ever spent a more disagreeable social evening. The Countess was glorious in the most daring of black décolleté gowns. Her great [ 171 ]