cipal hotel. "Since the journey's supposed to be a pleasure trip,
Carmona's bound to give his guests time to see the sights of Cordoba."

But nothing was known of the Duke and his party at the hotel, although
there was a rumour that an automobile had passed through the town in the
morning.

The Cherub, consulted, was of opinion that if Carmona's car had come, it
must have remained.

"There'd be nowhere for them to stop afterwards short of Seville," he
said, "unless Carmona, and that's near Seville. They must be lurking in
Cordoba--perhaps at the Marques de Villa-blanca's, who's a friend of the
Duke's. We shall come across our lovely little lady presently, if we get
about in the town; in the Paseo del Gran Capitan, or the Patio de los
Naranjos, or the cathedral, or by the ruins of the Alcazar."

"Besides, I thought you'd made up your mind not to worry till we got to
Seville," said Dick.

"So I had," I answered. "But I have a feeling as if something had gone
wrong."

"Any reason for the feeling--except the feeling itself?" asked Dick.

I shook my head, not caring to mention the letter that might have gone
astray. "Nothing I can define."

"Then I guess it's all right, and you're developing nerves."

"I know _just_ how he feels," said Pilar, with a reproachful look at Dick,
with whom she was at odds since the episode of the bull. "There was an
expression in Lady Monica's eyes, wasn't there, at Manzanares, as if she
were sad? Oh, I saw it; and they wouldn't let me get within whispering
distance of her afterwards, or I should have found out what it meant. I
had the idea that they were _particularly_ anxious to keep me away, and I
wondered if there were any new reason. I'm not surprised that Don Ramon is
worried. One can see that Senor Waring's never been in love!"

"Oh, haven't I?" exclaimed Dick; which, of course made matters worse; and
to mend them, he went on blundering. "What do _you_ know about the
symptoms?"

"Girls are born knowing things it takes men years to learn," said Pilar.

It did not allay my anxiety that she should have noticed what I had
noticed. But I clung to the Cherub's assurance, hoping, when we had set
out on our explorations, to meet her, to see her face light up with the
radiance I knew.

But there were no strangers save ourselves, and a few wandering Americans
under the palms and orange trees of the _paseo_ dedicated to the memory of
El Gran Capitan.

We wandered--Pilar keeping at my