ppy girl into a hateful
marriage?" she asked. "How can such a thing advantage you?"

"Ah!" answered Ramiro briskly, "I perceive I have to do with a woman
of business, one who has that rarest of gifts--common sense. I will
be frank. Your esteemed father died possessed of a very large fortune,
which to-day is your property as his sole issue and heiress. Under the
marriage laws, which I myself think unjust, that fortune will pass into
the power of any husband whom you choose to take. Therefore, so soon as
you are made his wife it will pass to Adrian. I am Adrian's father,
and, as it happens, he is pecuniarily indebted to me to a considerable
amount, so that, in the upshot, as he himself has pointed out more than
once, this alliance will provide for both of us. But business details
are wearisome, so I need not enlarge."

"The fortune you speak of, Senor Ramiro, is lost."

"It is lost, but I have reason to hope that it will be found."

"You mean that this is purely a matter of money?"

"So far as I am concerned, purely. For Adrian's feelings I cannot speak,
since who knows the mystery of another's heart?"

"Then, if the money were forthcoming--or a clue to it--there need be no
marriage?"

"So far as I am concerned, none at all."

"And if the money is not forthcoming, and I refuse to marry the Heer
Adrian, or he to marry me--what then?"

"That is a riddle, but I think I see an answer at any rate to half
of it. Then the marriage would still take place, but with another
bridegroom."

"Another bridegroom! Who?"

"Your humble and devoted adorer."

Elsa shuddered and recoiled a step.

"Ah!" he said, "I should not have bowed, you saw my white hairs--to the
young a hateful sight."

Elsa's indignation rose, and she answered:

"It is not your white hair that I shrink from, Senor, which in some
would be a crown of honour, but----"

"In my case suggests to you other reflections. Be gentle and spare me
them. In a world of rough actions, what need to emphasise them with
rough words?"

For a few minutes there was silence, which Ramiro, glancing out of the
lattice, broke by remarking that "The snowfall was extraordinarily heavy
for the time of year." Then followed another silence.

"I understood you just now, dear lady, to make some sort of suggestion
which might lead to an arrangement satisfactory to both of us. The exact
locality of this wealth is at present obscure--you mentioned some clue.
Are you in a position t