ing
to these unexpected, surprising friends of Angele de la Mole's.

"Me Maria del Pilar Ines O'Donnel y Alvarez," the girl introduced herself.
"Angele de la Mole, mi--mi _fren_." Having wavered so far, between Spanish
and English, she flung herself headlong into her native tongue. This was
the signal for the Cherub also to begin fluent explanations, both fluting
Andaluz together, and so fast, that Dick (painstakingly taught a little
Castilian by me in leisure moments) found himself at sea, and drowning.

I had to translate for him such facts in the O'Donnel family history as I
could unravel from the tangled web. The mystery of Angele de la Mole's
Spanish-speaking Irish friends (which she must have refrained from
explaining in order to play a joke upon Dick) was solved in a sentence. An
O'Donnel grandfather had fought in Spain under Wellington in the
Peninsular War, and stayed in Spain because he loved a Spanish girl who
had many acres. The Cherub's father was born in Spain, and spoke little
English. The Cherub himself spoke none, or but a word or two. He was a
colonel in the Spanish army, now retired. That was all; except that his
son and daughter had once studied an English grammar, until they came to
the verbs; then they had stopped, because life was short and full of other
things. "But," said Miss O'Donnel proudly, "me know, two, three, word.
Lo-vely. Varry nice. Aw raight. Yes."

When she thus displayed the store of her accomplishments, punctuated with
dimples, any man not head over ears in love with another girl, would have
given his eyes to kiss her. I was sorry for Dick. As for me--I found myself
longing to tell Dona Maria del Pilar Ines O'Donnel y Alvarez all about
Lady Monica Vale, with the conviction that her help would be of
inestimable value.

Such is the power of a girl's eyes upon weak man, even when he adores a
very different pair of eyes; and already it was strange to remember my
stiff disclaimer of a wish to know the O'Donnels. I had called them
"extraneous." What a dull ass!

XI

MARIA DEL PILAR TO THE RESCUE

At last, when the general confusion had subsided, I was able to impress
upon the delightful pair that, if they would but speak very slowly, and
kindly trouble themselves to give a word of three syllables, say, two of
them (a punctilious habit disapproved in Andalucia) Senor Waring would be
able to join the conversation. With true Spanish goo