Part 4 (1/2)

”I'm not sure I understand.”

Jacinta laughed musically. ”Now,” she said, ”I really believe you do.”

”Well,” said Austin, with a doubtful smile, ”if you think I went overboard of my own will to win your approbation, you are mistaken. I did not go at all. I was, in fact, thrown in. Macallister is, as you know, a somewhat persistent person.”

”Ah!” said Jacinta. ”That explains a good deal. Well, I feel almost tempted to be grateful to him for doing it, though you were, of course, sensible. There was really no reason why you should wish me to credit you with courage and humanity--especially when you didn't possess them.”

Austin hoped she did not see that he winced, for although he had borne a good deal of her badinage, he felt his face grow hot. He was quite aware that this girl was not for him, and he had, he believed, succeeded in preventing himself falling in love with her. It seemed quite fitting that she should regard him as one of her servants, and since he could look for nothing more, he was content with that. He had, however, a spice of temper, and sometimes she drove him a trifle too hard.

”Still,” he said, ”if I ever did anything really worth while, I think I should insist upon your recognising it, though it is scarcely likely that I shall have the opportunity.”

”No,” said Jacinta, reflectively, ”I scarcely think it is; but, after all, I have a little to thank you for. You see, you did delay the _Estremedura_. I suppose you have not seen Mr. Jefferson during the last half hour?”

”No,” said Austin, with a little start of interest. ”Has he----”

”He has. Muriel, at least, has evidently arrived at an understanding with him. I am not sure they saw me, but I came across them a little while ago--and they looked supremely happy.”

There was satisfaction in her voice, but it was with a mildly ironical and yet faintly wistful expression she gazed at the s.h.i.+ning sea. It somewhat astonished Austin, though there was so much about Jacinta that was incomprehensible to him.

”Well,” he said, ”I'm glad; but I should scarcely have fancied Miss Gascoyne would have attracted Jefferson. After all, one would hardly consider her a young woman who had very much in her. Indeed, I have wondered why you were so fond of her.”

Jacinta smiled curiously as she looked at him. ”She is wonderful to Jefferson. There is no grace or goodness that she is not endued with in his estimation.”

”But if she doesn't possess them?”

”Then,” said Jacinta, decisively, ”because he believes she does, she will acquire them. There are women like that, you know, and I am not sure that sensible people like you and I don't lose the best of life occasionally. If a man believes a girl of Muriel's kind angelic she is very apt to unfold s.h.i.+ning wings, though n.o.body else ever fancied that she had anything of the kind about her.”

”Ah!” said Austin, who was a little stirred, though he would not admit it. ”No doubt you know. A good many men must have thought that of you.”

Jacinta laughed again. ”No, my friend,” she said. ”I have met men who thought me amusing, and two or three who thought me clever--but that is a very different thing--while it is possible that the others remembered I was Pancho Brown's daughter. So, you see, my wings have not unfolded.

In fact, I sometimes think they are in danger of shrivelling away.”

There was nothing that Austin could say, for he was the _Estremedura_'s sobrecargo, and had never forgotten that Pancho Brown was reputed to be making several thousand a year. Still, he found silence difficult, and changed the subject.

”Well,” he said, ”you haven't told me yet why you are so fond of Miss Gascoyne.”

”She--is--good, and, after all, goodness really does appeal to some of us. Besides, when I went to an English school, a stranger, more Spanish than English in thought and sentiment, and most of the others held aloof from me, she saw I was lonely, and came and made friends with me. I was glad to cling to her then, and you see I haven't forgotten it.”

There was a tone in the girl's voice which sent a little thrill through the man. It was very clear that Jacinta did not forget a kindness, and he had once or twice already had glimpses of her deeper nature. While he stood silent, and, as it happened, in the shadow, Miss Gascoyne came out of the door and approached Jacinta with the moonlight on her face.

Austin was almost startled as he glanced at her.

When he had last seen Muriel Gascoyne he had considered her a comely English girl without imagination or sensibility. She had, in fact, appeared to him narrow in her views, totally unemotional, and more than a little dull, certainly not the kind of young woman to inspire or reciprocate pa.s.sionate admiration in any discerning man. Now, as she came towards him with her eyes s.h.i.+ning and the soft colour in her face, which was very gentle, she seemed transfigured and almost radiant. She stooped and kissed Jacinta impulsively.

”I am so happy, my dear,” she said. ”We owe ever so much to you.”

Austin had the grace to wish himself somewhere else, though he did not see how he could get away, but Jacinta, with her usual boldness, turned in his direction.