lowed you
any right, any claim upon you?"

"None but what you in your folly have forced upon him! You have made him
father's ally. I don't know why he came here. I only know why I did--to
find YOU!"

"You suspected then?"

"I KNEW! Hush!"

The returning voices of Grant and of Mrs. Ramirez were heard in the
courtyard. Clementina made a warning yet girlishly mirthful gesture,
again caught his hand, drew him quickly to the French window, and
slipped through it with him into the garden, where they were quickly
lost in the shadows of a ceanothus hedge.

"They have probably met Don Jose in the orchard, and as he and Don Diego
have business together, Dona Clementina has without doubt gone to her
room and left them. For you are not very entertaining to the ladies
to-day,--you two caballeros! You have much politics together, eh?--or
you have discussed and disagreed, eh? I will look for the Senorita, and
let you go, Don Distraido!"

It is to be feared that Grant's apologies and attempts to detain her
were equally feeble,--as it seemed to him that this was the only chance
he might have of seeing Clementina except in company with Fletcher. As
Mrs. Ramirez left he lit a cigarette and listlessly walked up and
down the gallery. But Clementina did not come, neither did his hostess
return. A subdued step in the passage raised his hopes,--it was only
the grizzled major domo, to show him his room that he might prepare for
dinner.

He followed mechanically down the long passage to a second corridor.
There was a chance that he might meet Clementina, but he reached his
room without encountering any one. It was a large vaulted apartment with
a single window, a deep embrasure in the thick wall that seemed to focus
like a telescope some forgotten, sequestered part of the leafy garden.
While washing his hands, gazing absently at the green vignette framed by
the dark opening, his attention was drawn to a movement of the foliage,
stirred apparently by the rapid passage of two half-hidden figures. The
quick flash of a feminine skirt seemed to indicate the coy flight of
some romping maid of the casa, and the pursuit and struggle of her
vaquero swain. To a despairing lover even the spectacle of innocent,
pastoral happiness in others is not apt to be soothing, and Grant was
turning impatiently away when he suddenly stopped with a rigid face and
quickly approached the window. In her struggles with the unseen Corydon,
the clustering leaves see