"I hate 'em!" announced O'Reilly. Then for a second time he took
Rosa's dimpled hand, saying, earnestly: "I'm sure you know now why
I make love so badly, dear. It's my Irish conscience. And you'll
wait until I come back, won't you?"

"Will you be gone--very long?" she asked.

O'Reilly looked deeply now into the dark eyes turned to his, and
found that at last there was no coquetry in them anywhere--nothing
but a lonesome, hungry yearning--and with a glad, incoherent
exclamation he held out his arms. Rosa Varona crept into them;
then with a sigh she upturned her lips to his.

"I'll wait forever," she said.




IV

RETRIBUTION


Although for a long time Dona Isabel had been sure in her own mind
that Pancho Cueto, her administrador, was robbing her, she had
never mustered courage to call him to a reckoning. And there was a
reason for her cowardice. Nevertheless, De Castano's blunt
accusation, coupled with her own urgent needs, served to fix her
resolution, and on the day after the merchant's visit she sent for