"
"Must be deuced interesting," he observed. "More silly rot than
ever."
"Others may not think so," I retorted, a little exasperated by
his manner. "It surely will be sufficiently exciting to read of
how we were buried with Desiree Le Mire under the Andes, and our
encounters with the Incas, and our final escape, and--"
"Desiree what?" Harry interrupted.
"Desiree Le Mire," I replied very distinctly. "The great French
dancer."
"Never heard of her," said Harry, looking at me as if he doubted
my sanity.
"Never heard of Desiree, the woman you loved?" I almost shouted
at him.
"The woman I--piffle! I say I never heard of her."
I gazed at him, trembling with high indignation. "I suppose," I
observed with infinite sarcasm, "that you will tell me next that
you have never been in Peru?"
"Guilty," said Harry. "I never have."
"And that you never climbed Pike's Peak to see the sunrise?"
"Rahway, New Jersey, is my farthest west."
"And that you never dived with me from the top of a column one
hundred feet high?"
"Not I. I retain a smattering of common sense."
"And that you did not avenge the death of Desiree by causing that
of the Inca king?"
"So far as that Desiree woman is concerned," said Harry, and his
tone began to show impatience, "I can only repeat that I have
never heard of the creature.
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