Part 3 (1/2)
CHAPTER III
To Myra's relief, Lady Fermanagh returned just then, full of apologies for having been detained so long at the telephone.
”I hope Myra has been keeping you entertained, senor,” she inquired, and Don Carlos nodded smilingly.
”More than entertained, Lady Fermanagh,” he answered. ”Miss Rostrevor and I have been discussing predestination. I have been telling her it was foretold by the King of the Gypsies that in this, my thirty-fifth year, I should meet my ideal, the woman predestined to be my wife. I have met her. The prophecy has come true.”
”I'm afraid it is another case of mistaken ident.i.ty, Aunt Clarissa,”
interposed Myra. ”Senor de Ruiz has made the amazing and amusing suggestion that I am the woman! Did you ever hear anything more absurd?”
She thought to cover Don Carlos with confusion, but he did not turn a hair.
”Alas, Lady Fermanagh, your charming niece refuses to take me seriously!” he smilingly lamented. ”It seems she was warned as a child to beware of a tall, dark, handsome man, and to put no faith in his honeyed words. I am desolated--but only temporarily!”
”From what I can make of it, you appear to have been engaged in a 'leg-pulling' contest,” commented Lady Fermanagh, darting a quick glance from one to the other, and deciding that Myra was probably evolving some mischievous joke. ”You don't mean to tell me seriously, Don Carlos, that you have any faith in the predictions of a gipsy?”
”Dear lady, since the King of the Gypsies predicted I should get my heart's desire, surely it would be almost heresy to doubt?” Don Carlos replied, with a side-glance at Myra. ”In my own country I have the reputation always of gaining anything on which I set my heart, and here I intend to live up to my reputation. a.s.suredly the Gypsy King's prediction will come true, your ladys.h.i.+p.”
He took his leave a few minutes later, pleasing Lady Fermanagh greatly by bowing low over her hand and raising her fingers to his lips.
”One of the most charming men I have met for years,” the old lady remarked, when the door closed behind him. ”He is a true Spanish grandee, with all the grace of a born courtier. I think it was exceedingly rude of you, Myra, to s.n.a.t.c.h your hand away as you did when Don Carlos was going to kiss your fingertips.”
”Personally, Aunt, I think he is the most arrogant, ill-mannered and insufferably conceited man I have ever met,” Myra responded warmly.
”He openly boasts that no woman can resist him, prides himself on his conquests, and while you were out of the room he was making pa.s.sionate love to me, and only made fun of my attempts to snub him. I hope you won't invite the horrible creature here again.”
Lady Fermanagh regarded her in amazement for a few moments, then dissolved into laughter.
”Oh, you modern girls!” she exclaimed. ”You think you know such a lot and are so advanced, yet you are as easily scared or fooled as any country maiden in Victorian times.”
”My dear aunt, Don Carlos de Ruiz can neither scare nor fool me,”
protested Myra; ”but surely I have a right to object to his attempting to make love to me when he knows I am engaged to Tony Standish.”
”Remember he is a Spaniard, my dear,” said her aunt, with a tolerant smile. ”The greatest compliment a Latin can pay a woman is to make love to her--and the majority make love merely by way of being complimentary. Don Carlos de Ruiz probably makes love to every woman he meets, which very likely explains why he is so popular. Why, my dear, he almost made love to me!”
”But he didn't tell you he wanted to marry you, did he, Aunt Clarissa, swear he would win you by hook or by crook, and vow that Old Nick himself would not prevent him from making you his own?” inquired Myra, beginning to smile again.
Lady Fermanagh laughed heartily.
”No, my dear, he certainly did not go as far as that,” she answered.
”You don't mean to tell me he actually said something to that effect to you?”
”Yes, both last night at the dance, and again a few minutes ago--and he said it as if he meant it. I have half a mind to ask Tony to tell the arrogantly conceited Spaniard not to pester me with his attentions again.”
”My dear child, don't make yourself ridiculous by doing anything so foolish. You need not take Don Carlos too seriously. He is very much a man of the world, probably something of a Don Juan, and likely makes love as a pastime. I met many of his type when your Uncle was in the Diplomatic Service--wealthy bachelors who made love to almost every pretty woman they met, provided always, however, that the woman was married or engaged, and there was no danger of being caught in the matrimonial net. I should say, my dear, judging from my experience, that Don Carlos probably would only have paid you compliments instead of making love to you, if he had not known you were engaged.”
”That sort of philanderer deserves to be kicked or horsewhipped, Aunt Clarissa, for making a mockery of love.”
”Oh, I don't know about that, my dear Myra. After all, as I have told you, men of the Latin races make love almost indiscriminately by way of paying a compliment, and pretty women in Spain, Italy, or France, would feel quite insulted if the men to whom they were introduced did not profess to be hopelessly in love with them. If you had lived abroad, Myra, you would feel flattered rather than annoyed.”