s, and, more shameful than all, he was
addressing one of the women.

In her distress, and determined not to hear the words, Miss Starland
softly ran up the steps and was looking through the rooms again for
the missing glove, when her friend, with a glowing smile, came down
holding it up in her hand. Both laughed over the insignificant
incident, and Miss Starland took care as they descended that her own
merriment continued. General Yozarro, thus warned, finished his
imprecations, and met them with his usual smiles and graciousness. In
his snowy suit, sombrero in hand, he was the acme of cool politeness
and courtesy. Had not Miss Starland identified his voice unmistakably,
she could not have believed what her ears had told her.

That one revelation, however, did its work. She was resolved to leave
Atlamalco on the first opportunity and never to set foot within the
Republic again. She had come to look upon this man with a mortal
horror, for, under the mask of chivalry, he carried the blackest of
hearts.

The return ride was trying to the last degree. General Yozarro seemed
to have forgotten his promise to his niece, and tortured her friend
with attentions which filled her with resentment. When he assisted her
to dismount, he pressed her hand for an instant until the rings on her
fingers dented the flesh and almost caused her to cry out with pain.
He uttered endearing expressions in a voice so low that no ears except
those for which they were intended heard them, and they gave no heed.
Her friend seemed to see nothing of all this, though she must have
been aware of it.

The irrepressible lover, more hopelessly enmeshed than ever, insisted
upon their visitor sitting with him and his niece on the piazza in the
moonlight, but in desperation, she pleaded a headache--when she had
never suffered therefrom--and kept her room.

"And Jack never dreams of anything of this kind," was her thought; "he
is only a few miles away, and I shall insist that I be taken to him on
the morrow."

Having made her resolution, she carried it out. At the table, which
was set in the large back room of General Yozarro's city house, and
provided with the choicest fruits and every delicacy that the fertile
republic could furnish, she made known her wish. She longed to see
her brother on an important matter, and begged that she might be taken
to him with the least possible delay. The others expressed their
regret, and the General offered to send fo