Part 70 (1/2)
”Ah! perhaps a connection by marriage?”
”Well, no--not exactly a connection, either--”
”Well, you see, senor, in Spain etiquette is very strict, and our ladies are under more restraint than with you. I must treat this lady in accordance with my own feelings, and a Spanish gentleman would feel as if he were slighting a lady if he were to act out of accordance with Spanish etiquette.”
”Oh,” said Harry, earnestly, ”she is an English lady.”
”But I am a Spanish gentleman.”
Harry drew a long breath. He was in despair. Oh, how he longed to be Katie's third cousin for a few minutes.
”I am very sorry,” said Lopez, ”but you see I have to be guided by my own sense of propriety. I suppose you are a very old friend, senor; yet I have been quite intimate with the senorita myself, and never heard her mention your name.”
”Well,” said Harry, ”I have not known her _very_ long.”
”She used to speak freely of all her English friends,” continued Lopez; ”for you see she had not many, having lived so long in Spain; and so I was surprised to hear you speak of her as so intimate a friend.”
”Well,” said Harry, ”my acquaintance with her is not of _very_ long standing.”
”You were not acquainted with her at Madrid?” said Lopez.
”No,” said Harry, dreamily.
”Nor at Cadiz?” continued Lopez.
”No--not Cadiz.”
”Then, senor, you could only have made her acquaintance on this journey,”
said Lopez, with a smile, which was not merely put on for a purpose. He felt like smiling, so successful had he been in getting at the truth.
Harry looked confused.
”Well, you see, senor, in captivity, or on a journey, people are very much thrown together, and they make friends.h.i.+ps very fast.”
”Oh yes,” said Lopez, ”I understand. In short, it amounts to this, that one day of such intercourse, so free, so unconventional, is equal to a whole year, or even a whole lifetime, of the formal intercourse of ordinary social life.”
”Well, senor, I am sorry. I came back thinking that you might be some near relative or connection. My own ideas and habits do not allow me to permit what you ask; but the senorita will be her own mistress in time, and then of course she can see whom she chooses.”
And now, for a second time, Lopez walked away, thinking that he understood all. Another victim, he thought. And in two or three days: in that time she has turned his head. And does she return his pa.s.sion? Is she as indifferent to him as she is to me, and to Ashby? I will soon find out.
CHAPTER XLVI.
IN WHICH LOPEZ MAKES A FRESH a.s.sAULT, AND KATIE BREAKS DOWN UTTERLY.
Once more Lopez called upon Katie: it was about two hours after his last call. This was his third call in one day. She looked surprised and also vexed.
”A little matter has occurred to me,” said he, ”which I thought I would mention to you, as it ought to be of some concern to you.”