girls, of Mariquita Juana, if I am not mistaken."

"And he is jealous! After his horse, the first thing in creation for him
is Mariquilla Troya."

"A pretty insinuation that!" exclaimed Dona Perfecta. "Poor Cristobal!
Did you suppose that a person like my nephew--let us hear, what were you
going to say to him? Speak."

"Senor Don Jose and I will talk together presently," responded the bravo
of the town brusquely.

And without another word he left the room.

Shortly afterward Pepe Rey left the dining-room to retire to his
own room. In the hall he found himself face to face with his Trojan
antagonist, and he could not repress a smile at the sight of the fierce
and gloomy countenance of the offended lover.

"A word with you," said the latter, planting himself insolently in front
of the engineer. "Do you know who I am?"

As he spoke he laid his heavy hand on the young man's shoulder with
such insolent familiarity that the latter, incensed, flung him off with
violence, saying:

"It is not necessary to crush one to say that."

The bravo, somewhat disconcerted, recovered himself in a moment, and
looking at Rey with provoking boldness, repeated his refrain: