"I am neither an atheist nor a Catholic. The question of religion has
no interest for me whatever. I wish it had none for you."

She looked at him sternly. For a moment I thought the Doomswoman would
annihilate the renegade. But her face softened suddenly. "I will pray
for you," she said, and turned to the man at her right.

Estenega's face turned the chalky hue I always dreaded, and he bent
his lips to her ear.

"Pray for me many times a day; and at other times recall what I said
about the relative value of possible and improbable heavens. You are a
woman who thinks."

"Don Diego," exclaimed Valencia, unable to control her impatience
longer, and turning sharply from the caballero who was talking to her
in a fiery undertone, "thou hast not spoken to me for ten minutes."

"For ten hours, señorita. Thou hast treated me with the scorn and
indifference of one weary of homage."

She blushed with gratification. "It is thou who hast forgotten me."

"Would that I could!"

"Dost thou wish to?"

"When I am away from thee, or thou talkest to other men,--sure."

"It is thy fault if I talk to other men."