ily, the whole truth; for he was in
the act of rushing at me, when he was unexpectedly stopped by Susanna, a
trifle pale, stepping in front of him, and, with the bearing of a woman
of the world, quietly stretching out her hand for him to conduct her
farther.

As Susanna went arm in arm up the room with the limping Martinez, she
suddenly turned her face to me with a look so beaming with joy, that
from deep despair I was suddenly raised to the happiest, most exulting
certainty.

She had evidently understood that Martinez's misfortune was an act of
revenge on my part, for her sake, and her mind was thereby relieved of
the doubt which my conduct for the last hour must have occasioned her;
for she had soon seen that I was not intoxicated, and coquetry was a
thing too far from her own sincere, truthful nature for her to be able
to imagine it in me. In perfect truthfulness, she was really only a
refined, feminine edition of her father's strong nature.

I went and made repeated apologies to young Martinez for my awkwardness,
while Susanna sat by and listened, and at length, good-natured as in
reality he was, he consented to be appeased. His face did grow rather
long when, immediately after, Susanna proposed that I should lead her
through the figure now going on, so that he could rest his injured leg
for the next.

Yes, I danced with her, a beautiful, full-grown woman in the white
ball-dress, whom a short while ago I had not recognised, because her own
splendidly developed beauty hid her.

We had taught one another to dance, and I think we both danced unusually
well. The light wreath with its delicate white flowers, set off the
beauty of her luxuriant hair; my arm was round her waist, and I felt how
yieldingly she leant upon me, happy and trusting as a child, as we
swayed in the dance. Her forehead was near my lips, and as our eyes
sought each other's during the dance, they said again and again, how
delightful it was to meet, when we had longed so for one another for two
whole years.

When I took her back to her place I received a pressure of the hand and
a look, which made me completely invulnerable to the less friendly
glances of her mother. It appeared that Susanna was then reprimanded for
her neglect of the young Senor Martinez, but the doctor, who sat beside
her, spoke in her defence.

I stood once more in my old place, and saw Susanna and Martinez go
through the next figure.

Her curling lip showed at first a tr