the
sake of his money, she is being forced or tricked."

"Force has failed," replied Sor Teresa. "Juanita has spirit. She laughed
in the face of force and refused absolutely."

"And?" muttered Sarrion.

"One may presume that subtler means were used," answered the nun.

"You mean trickery," suggested Marcos. "You mean that her own words were
twisted into another meaning; that she was committed or convicted out of
her own lips; that she was brought to Saragossa by trickery, and that by
trickery she will be dragged unwittingly into religion--you need not
shake your head. I am saying nothing against the Church. I am a good
Catholic. It is a question of politics. And in politics you must fight
with the weapon that the adversary selects. We are only politicians ...
my dear aunt."

"Is that all?" said Sor Teresa, looking at him with her deep eyes which
had seen the world before they saw heaven. Things seen leave their trace
behind the eyes.

Marcos made no answer, but turned away and looked out of the window
again.

"It is a question of mutual accommodation," put in Sarrion in his lighter
voice. "Sometimes the Church makes use of politics. And at another time
it is politics making use of the Church. And each sullies the other on
each occasion. We shall not let Juanita go into religion. The Church may
want her and may think that it is for her happiness, but we also have our
opinion on that point; we also ..."

He broke off with a laugh and threw out his hands in a gesture of
deprecation; for Sor Teresa had placed her two hands over that part of
her cap which concealed her ears.

"I can hear nothing," she said. "I can hear nothing."

She removed her hands and sat sipping her coffee in silence. Marcos was
standing near the window. He could see the white road stretched out
across the plain for miles.

"What did you intend to do on your arrival in Saragossa if you had not
met us?" he asked.

"I should have gone to the Casa Sarrion to warn your father or yourself
that Juanita had been taken from my control and that I did not know where
she was."

"And then?" inquired Marcos.

"And then I should have gone to Torrero," she answered with a smile at
his persistence; "where I intend to go now. Then I shall learn at what
hour and in which chapel the ceremony is to take place to-day."

"The ceremony in which Juanita has been ordered to take part as a
spectator only?"

Sor Toresa nodded her head.

"It cannot well tak