think it
necessary to kiss her, but she shook her warmly by the hand, telling her
that she was a good girl, and fit to be a Yankee, a compliment which
Manuela hardly appreciated. As for Rita, she kissed the girl on both
cheeks, and stood holding her hands, gazing at her with wistful eyes.

"Ah, Manuela," she cried; "I must not begrudge it to you. You are a
heroine; you have had the opportunity, and you knew how to take it.
Daughter of Cuba, your sister blesses you."

Before Manuela could reply, Donna Prudencia broke in. "There! there!"
she said. "Come down off your high horse, Miss Margaritty, there's a
dear; and help me to see to things. Here's Captain Delmonty coming
to-night, and them chicken-thieves of Gringos have carried off every
living thing there was to eat in the house."

CHAPTER XI.

CAPTAIN JACK.

When Jack Delmonte appeared, late in the evening, he was puzzled at the
change which had come over the pretty Grand Duchess, as he had mentally
nicknamed Rita. In the afternoon she had appeared, he could not imagine
why, to regard him as a portion of the scum of the earth. He thought her
extremely pretty, and full of charm, yet he could not help feeling
provoked, in spite of his amusement, at the disdainful curl at the
corners of her mouth when she addressed him. Now, he was equally at a
loss to understand why or how the Grand Duchess was replaced by a gentle
and tender-voiced maiden, who looked up at him from under her long
curved lashes with timid and deprecatory glances. She insisted on
mixing his _granita_ herself, and brought it in the one valuable cup
Marm Prudence possessed, a beautiful old bit of Lowestoft. She begged to
hear from his own lips about his last raid--about all his raids. She had
heard about some of them; the one where he had swum the river under fire
to rescue the little lame boy; the other, when he had chased five
Spaniards for half a mile, with no other weapon than a banana pointed at
full cock. She even knew of some exploits that he had never heard of;
and the honest captain found himself blushing under his tan, and finally
changed the subject by main force. It was very pleasant, of course, to
have this lovely creature hanging on his words, and supplementing them
with others of her own, only too extravagantly laudatory; but a fellow
must tell the truth; and--and after all, what was the meaning of it? She
wouldn't look at him, three hours ago.

Had they had a gay winter in Ha