plants and
exotic trees; and Charles chose a way that brought them into an avenue
of palms, through which the fading sunlight fell in diagonal bands, to
a wide stone basin where water lilies spread their curd-like
whiteness. There they paused, and Pilar sat on the edge of the pool,
with one hand dipping in the water. He saw that, remarkably, she
resembled a water lily bloom, she was as still, as densely pale; and
he told her this in his best manner. But if it pleased her he was
unable to discover. A hundred feet away from them the chaperone cast
her replica on the unstirred surface of the water, in the middle of
which a fountain of shells maintained a cool splashing.

"I should like one of those," she said, indicating a floating flower.

"It's too far out," he responded, and she turned her slow scrutiny
upon him. Her eyes were neither blue nor gray but green, the green of
a stone.

"That you are agreeable is more important than you know," she said
deliberately. "And de Vaca--" she conveyed a sense of disdain. "What
is it that he wants so much from you? How can it, on this little
island, a place with only two cities, be important? I must tell you
that I am not cheap; and when I was brought here, to see a boy, it
annoyed me. But I am annoyed no longer," her wet fingers swiftly left
their prints on his cheek. "Oporto and the English Court--I understood
that; but to dig secrets from you, an innocent young American," she
relapsed into silence as though he, the subject she had introduced,
were insufficient to excuse the clatter of speech. So far as he was
concerned, he replied, he had no idea of her meaning.

"You see," he went on more volubly, "I was, to some extent, connected
with the death of Santacilla, an officer of the regiment of Isabel,
and they may still be looking for information about that."

She assured him he was wrong. "It is Cuba that troubles them. It's in
their heads you are close to powerful families here and in North
America, and that you are bringing them together, pouring Northern
gold into the empty pockets of the Revolution. I saw at once, before I
met you, that I should waste my time, and I was going away at once ...
until you walked into the restaurant. Now it will amuse me, and I
shall take the doblons I get and buy you a present, a ruby, and, when
you see Captain de Vaca, you will wear it and smile and he will know
nothing."

"You mustn't buy me anything," Charles protested earnestly; "I can