And I
want him to be interested."

Poor Don Cipriano! He had visibly a bad half moment, trembling lest we had
rushed out to announce my engagement to the adorable Pilarcita; but it was
good to see the light come back to his eyes when he heard that I--blind
worm--had fallen in love with another girl. Clever Pilarcita made this fact
clear, so that Don Cipriano's jealous heart might warm to me before he
knew what thing was wanted. Dick became tolerable also, as a friend
following in the train of my adventures; and soon the poor fellow was
ready to put not only the gearing of his motor-car, but his house and
everything in it, at our service.

He blessed his patron saint for bringing us to his door, and for
permitting him to have ridden home from a distant farm in time to greet
us; he roundly cursed the Duke of Carmona, consigning him to Purgatory for
a longer period than usual; and when everyone of us (except Dick) was in
the best of humours with everybody else, we paid a visit to his car.

She might, in all but colour, have been twin-sister to mine. There seemed
reason to hope that the pinions of this Gloria would fit the other Gloria,
and that no time might be lost in making the experiment, the Conde de
Roldan volunteered to spin us into Madrid, letting our "simon" go back
empty. If we decieved ourselves, rather than I should be delayed (said
he), his car was mine to take where I would, and the Cherub stepped on my
foot to check a refusal.

There was a chauffeur in this interesting household, but he was several
other things as well, and was a better dog-doctor than the vet. At that
moment he was assisting at an addition to the family of Lubina's daughter;
but in any case, Don Cipriano, protested, he would have allowed no one to
drive us save himself.

We raced to Madrid in a fourth of the time we had taken in coming; and two
hours after the moment when we had news of the disaster, we arrived at the
garage of my injured Gloria.

A somnolent night-porter (one of the few persons in Madrid who appeared to
use the night for sleep) let us in; and at the sound of our entrance the
figure of a man sprang from the cushions of my car. Pilar gave a cry,
which changed to a laugh as she saw that it was Ropes.

"San Cristobal failed you for a few minutes this evening, didn't he? But
he's going to make up for it now," she said. "And I'm going to see him do
it, if it takes all night."

In vain did the Cherub try to persuade her t