"He speaks
of you in this letter," she said, letting her dark eyes rest on him
provokingly.
"That accounts for your lack of interest then," said Paul gayly,
relieved to turn a conversation fraught with so much danger.
"But he speaks very flatteringly," she went on. "He seems to be
another one of your admirers. I'm sure, Mr. Hathaway, after that
scene in the hotel parlor yesterday, YOU, at least, cannot complain
of having been misrepresented before ME. To tell you the truth, I
think I hated you a little for it."
"You were quite right," returned Paul. "I must have been
insufferable! And I admit that I was slightly piqued against YOU
for the idolatries showered upon you at the same moment by your
friends."
Usually, when two young people have reached the point of
confidingly exchanging their first impressions of each other, some
progress has been made in first acquaintance. But it did not
strike Paul in that way, and Yerba's next remark was discouraging.
"But I'm rather disappointed, for all that. Colonel Pendleton
tells me you know nothing of my family or of the secret."
Paul was this time quite prepared, and withstood the girl's
scrutiny calmly. "Do you think," he asked lightly, "that even HE
knows?"
"Of course he does," she returned quickly.
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