ale-Avon.

He must have been watching. He must have known that I had brought Lady
Monica to this room. He must have fetched the girl's mother on purpose to
find us together.

These were the thoughts in my mind as I faced the two, mask in hand.

They had seen me kissing Monica's fingers. It was useless to hope that
they had not.

"Leave the room instantly, my daughter," said Lady Vale-Avon, in a low
voice. She too had taken off her mask.

It was a disastrous situation for me, and one all too difficult to carry
off with dignity.

"Madame," I said. "I am the Marques de Casa Triana. I met Lady Monica some
time ago, and have this moment told her that I love her. Now, I ask your
consent to--"

"Casa Triana here!" exclaimed Carmona, in a tone which could have
expressed no more of horror, had I been a bandit at large.

"Have no fear for your house," I could not help sneering.

He gave me a look not to be forgiven a man by a man. "I have no such
fear," he said; "but there are those here whose safety is dear to me; and
your name is not one which should be spoken under the same roof."

It was thus that he chose to inform Lady Vale-Avon, if she had been
ignorant of it, that I was a notorious character.

"Will you tell me," he went on, "how you found your way into my mother's
house, where no one of your name could be an invited guest?"

"There's a window," said I, thinking to save de la Mole, "by which the
world and his wife might enter."

"I saw you, masked, in the ball-room half an hour ago."

Half an hour ago! Perhaps he was not exaggerating. But the thirty minutes,
if there had been thirty, had passed like one.

"I was there," I admitted, "looking for Lady Monica Vale. We danced
together, and I brought her here--"

"Who is this man, Duke?" Though she spoke to him, Lady Vale-Avon's eyes,
cold as points of steel, pierced mine.

"A person who, whatever his intentions may be, ought not to be in Biarritz
while King Alfonso's here."

"I remember the name now. And he has come to your house, uninvited; he
proposes to marry my daughter--a man whom I've never seen! You have your
answer, Marques de Casa Triana, if you need an answer. It is, no. Pray
accept it quietly, and cease to persecute us, otherwise I must ask the
Duke to act for me, as I have no husband or son. Is that enough?"

"It is not enough," I echoed. "I love your daughter, and I trust she cares
for me. I will not give her up."

"Monica, I told you to