"Is it all true, señor?" asked Dolores. "Doña Angela laughs at it, and you frown; and between the two, how are we to know how serious it may all be to you?"
"Serious enough to make him bare his head at every old battered shrine for her sake," said Angela, with a little shrug; "and an old ring of his mother's was lost from his finger on that wilderness trail, while the Mexican eagle took its place. Oh, nuns are only women after all, and much can happen in the length of a Mexican night!"
"Well, señor," said Dolores, with sudden courage, "I am a good Catholic, thank God! and I see no sacrilege in the sort of love for which a man bares his head at a shrine. Señor Bryton, the story will make us of California more than ever your friends!"
"I am at your feet, señorita," said Bryton, with kindly deference. "Now, Mrs. Bryton, if you have no other--romances--to elaborate and embellish, perhaps you will allow me to see you to your carriage, before I start for Los Angeles. Don Rafael is detained by us when he should be on his way south, and--"
"Oh--I beg--" began Rafael, but Madalena interrupted.
"Not another moment must we stay. Aunt Teresa will scold us well for this!"
"For taking pity on a lonely bachelor?" asked Rafael.
"Lonely?" repeated Dolores. "We will come again when the bride comes. Until then we leave you to prepare your soul with this--and this!"
She motioned to the decanter, and picked up the scarlet fan of Mercedes.
"You cruel one! You would make Doña Angela think--but do not think it, madama! I assure you, it is my mother's--or my aunt's--or--"
"He never had an aunt," laughed Madalena. "Come, Uncle Ricardo, Doña Maxima wants you at home; she is at our house saying things to make your ears burn."
"Sure!" said Don Ricardo, getting on his feet and taking the cane offered him. "But it is in honor of Doña Luisa Arteaga I am here. When her son makes gay company, it is the time for the steady friends of the family to stay by. So I am here, Madalena mia; and I shall say to my wife I was here all the evening, right here at this table as a respectable friend, and won seventy pesos!"
"Sure, he did," assented Don Antonio. "But it is over! The sun is up, it is good time to go home."
Rafael managed in the farewells to kiss the hand of Mrs. Bryton twice, and to be observed by Bryton only once. That was enough of victory for the moment, and when the door was closed he flung himself into a chair and reached again for the decanter.