were antagonistic, had begun to force itself upon him. He
had no intention of being disloyal to her old guardian, but he felt
that Pendleton had not been frank with him since his return from
Rosario. Had he ever been so with HER? He sometimes doubted his
disclaimer.

He was lucky in finding the General disengaged, and together they dined
at a restaurant and spent the evening at the Kursaal. Later, at the
Residenz Club, the General leaned over his beer-glass and smilingly
addressed his companion.

"So I hear you, too, are a conquest of the beautiful South American."

For an instant Paul, recognizing only Dona Anna under that epithet,
looked puzzled.

"Come, my friend," said the General regarding him with some amusement,
"I am an older man than you, yet I hardly think I could have ridden out
with such a goddess without becoming her slave."

Paul felt his face flush in spite of himself. "Ah! you mean Miss
Arguello," he said hurriedly, his color increasing at his own mention
of that name as if he were imposing it upon his honest companion. "She
is an old acquaintance of mine--from my own State--California."

"Ah, so," said the General, lifting his eyebrows in profound apology.
"A thousand pardons."

"Surely," said Paul, with a desperate attempt to recover his
equanimity, "YOU ought to know our geography better."

"So, I am wrong. But still the name--Arguello--surely that is not
American? Still, they say she has no accent, and does not look like a
Mexican."

For an instant Paul was superstitiously struck with the fatal
infelicity of Yerba's selection of a foreign name, that now seemed only
to invite that comment and criticism which she should have avoided.
Nor could he explain it at length to the General without assisting and
accenting the deception, which he was always hoping in some vague way
to bring to an end. He was sorry he had corrected the General; he was
furious that he had allowed himself to be confused.

Happily his companion had misinterpreted his annoyance, and with
impulsive German friendship threw himself into what he believed to be
Paul's feelings. "Donnerwetter! Your beautiful countrywoman is made
the subject of curiosity just because that stupid baron is persistent
in his serious attentions. That is quite enough, my good friend, to
make Klatschen here among those animals who do not understand the
freedom of an American girl, or that an heiress may have something else
to do with her