"
He leaned his white-crowned head against the high chair-back, and
while he waited for Manuel's decision he gazed calmly at the border
of red tiles which showed at the low eaves of the porch--calmly as to
features only, for his eyes held the blaze of anger.
"Senors, I go." The brim of Manuel's sombrero flicked the dust of the
patio.
"Come, then, and I will reckon your wage," invited the don, coldly
courteous as to a stranger. "You will excuse me, Senor? I shall not be
long."
Dade's impulse was to protest, to intercede, to say that he and Jack
would go immediately, rather than stir up strife. But he had served a
stern apprenticeship in life, and he knew it was too late now to
put out the fires of wrath burning hotly in the hearts of those two;
however completely he might efface himself, the resentment was too
keen, the quarrel too fresh to be so easily forgotten.
He was standing irresolutely on the steps when Jack came hack from the
rose garden, whistling softly an old love-song and smiling fatuously
to himself.
"We're going to take that ride, after all," he announced gleefully.
"Want to come along? She's going to ask her father to come, too--says
it would be terribly improper for us two to ride alone. What's the
matter? Got the toothache?"
Dade straightened himself automatically after the slap on the back
that was like a cuff from a she-bear, and grunted an uncivil sentence.
Pages:
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111