men. He lighted a cigarette, threw away
the match with a little gesture which seemed to indicate that he was
ready for her--would meet her on her own ground.

"Why did Evasio Mon want me to go into religion?" she asked bluntly.

"My child--you have three million pesetas."

"And if I had gone into religion--and I nearly did--the Church would have
had them?"

"Pardon me," said Sarrion. "The Jesuits--not the Church. It is not the
same thing--though the world does not yet understand that. The Jesuits
would have had the money and they would have spent it in throwing Spain
into another civil war which would have been a worse war than we have
seen. The Church--our Church--has enemies. It has Bismarck, and the
English; but it has no worse enemy than the Jesuits. For they play their
own game."

"At Pelota! and you and Marcos?"

"We were on the other side," said Sarrion, with a shrug of the shoulders.

"And I have been the ball."

Sarrion glanced at her sideways. This was the moment that Marcos had
always anticipated. Sarrion wondered why he should have to meet it and
not Marcos. Juanita sat motionless with steady eyes fixed on the distant
mountains. He looked at her lips and saw there a faint smile not devoid
of pity--as if she knew something of which he was ignorant. He pulled
himself together; for he was a bold man who faced his fences with a
smile.

"Well," he said, "... since we have won."

"Have you won?"

Sarrion glanced at her again. Why did she not speak plainly, he was
wondering. In the subtler matters of life, women have a clearer
comprehension and a plainer speech than men. When they are
tongue-tied--the reason is a strong one.

"At all events Senor Mon does not know when he is beaten," said Juanita,
and the silence that followed was broken by the distant sound of firing.
They were fighting at the mouth of the valley.

"That is true," admitted Sarrion.

"They say he is trapped in the valley--as we are."

"So I believe."

"Will he come to Torre Garda?"

"As likely as not," answered Sarrion. "He has never lacked audacity."

"If he comes I should like to speak to him," said Juanita.

Sarrion wondered whether she intended to make Evasio Mon understand that
he was beaten. It was Mon himself who had said that the woman always
holds the casting vote.

"At all events," said Juanita, who seemed to have returned in her
thoughts to the question of winning or losing. "At all events, you played
a bold ga