t
might happen if she starts talking like that to Jack--it's just what
he's waiting to hear."

XX

Juan must have fallen asleep. As he lay stretched upon the bench, he was
awakened suddenly by the sound of vehement, passionate words.

Peering cautiously through the bushes, he beheld Chiquita and Don Felipe
standing facing one another in the same spot where the three women had
been but a short time before. He was not near enough to overhear the
conversation, but judging from the vehemence of their gestures and
high-pitched voices, he rightly conjectured that their meeting was
anything but an amicable one.

On seeing Chiquita with Blanch and Bessie, Don Felipe had discreetly
refrained from joining them as he had promised; he would make his
apologies to them in the evening. The opportunity for which he had been
waiting since his return had come--he must see Chiquita alone. So he
withdrew to a far corner of the garden, where he could observe the women
without being seen, and when Blanch and Bessie returned to the house, he
intercepted her. Although she had hourly expected to meet him ever since
she had been apprised of his return, his appearance was so sudden she
was taken unawares. She had reseated herself after Blanch and Bessie
left and sat leaning with one elbow on the table and her head resting in
her hand, lost in thought. She did not hear his approach from behind,
but at the first sound of his voice she started to her feet, turning
like a flash and facing him. Her movement was so sudden and unexpected
that he too was taken aback.

"You evidently did not expect to see me this afternoon," he began with
some hesitancy.

"I did not," she replied coldly. "I should have thought," she continued,
looking him full in the eyes, "that the manhood in you would have
forever prevented your return." Felipe winced under her words. A dark
flush of anger suffused his face, and his lips quivered in an effort to
frame the hot words he was about to utter in reply, but he checked
himself.

"One is sometimes forced to follow the bidding of an instinct or desire
even against one's will," he said, controlling himself with difficulty.
She drew her glove on her right hand without replying and took a step in
the direction of the _patio_, as though to depart.

"Chiquita!" he exclaimed, stepping quickly in front of her and barring
her way, "I have tried my best to remain away, but in spite of myself,
I've been drawn irresistibl