n and maybe
a good deal later. So I waited. The car I hired is a covered one, and I
sat in it, a long way from the house out of sight behind a little rising
of the land. Perhaps you call it a hill."

"We do," said Knight.

"I brought some food and wine. The chauffeur's there with the car now. He
has cigarettes, and doesn't mind if we stay all night."

"I mind," Knight cut her short. "You can't stay all night. The road's
good enough with such a moon for you to get back to El Paso. You'd better
start so as to reach there before she sets."

"Wait till you hear why I've come before you advise me to hurry!" the
Countess protested. "There's no danger of our being disturbed, is there?
Where is your wife?"

"In bed and asleep, I trust."

"I'm glad. Then will you sit on the top of these steps in this heavenly
moonlight and let me tell you things that are important to me? Perhaps
you may think they are important to you as well. Who knows?"

"I know. Nothing you can have to say will be important to me. I won't sit
down, thank you. I've been sitting in my car for hours. I prefer to
stand."

"Very well. But--how hard you are! Even now, you won't believe I was
innocent of that thing you accused me of doing?"

"I think now what I thought then. You were not innocent, but guilty. You
were just a plain, ordinary sneak, Madalena, because you were jealous
and spiteful."

"It is not true! Spiteful against _you_! It was never in my heart to lie.
Jealous, perhaps. But that is not to say I wrote the letter you believe
I wrote. You didn't give me time to try and prove I did not write the
letter. You accused me brutally. You ordered me out of England, with
threats. I obeyed because I was heartbroken, not because I was afraid."

"Why trouble to excuse yourself?" he asked. "It's not worth the time it
takes. If you've come to tell me anything in particular, tell it, and
let's make an end."

"I have an offer of marriage from a millionaire," the Countess announced
in a clear, triumphant tone.

"Which no doubt you accepted, not to say snapped at."

"Not yet. I put him off, because I wanted to see you before I answered."

"You flatter me!" Knight laughed, not pleasantly. "If you've come from
San Francisco to get my advice on that subject, I can give it while you
count three. Make sure of the unfortunate wretch before he changes his
mind."

"Ah, if I could think that your harshness comes from just a
little--_ever_ so little, jealous