Their eyes met for a single moment, the look of admiration in
Paul's being answered by the naive consciousness in Yerba's of a
woman looking her best; but the next moment she appeared
preoccupied with the others, and the eager advances of Don Caesar.
"Your brother seems to admire Miss Yerba," said Paul.
"Ah, ye--es," returned Dona Anna. "And you?"
"Oh!" said Paul, gayly, "I? I am her guardian--with me it is
simple egotism, you know."
"Ah!" returned the arch Dona Anna, "you are then already SO certain
of her? Good! I shall warn him."
A precaution that did seem necessary; as later, when Paul, at a
signal from his hostess, offered his arm to Yerba, the young
Spaniard regarded him with a look of startled curiosity.
"I thank you for selecting me to wear your colors," said Paul with
a glance at the flowers in her corsage, as they sat at table, "and
I think I deserve them, since, but for you, I should have been on
my way to San Francisco at this moment. Shall I have an
opportunity of talking to you a few minutes later in the evening?"
he added, in a lower tone.
"Why not now?" returned Yerba, mischievously. "We are set here
expressly for that purpose."
"Surely not to talk of our own business--I should say, of our
FAMILY affairs," said Paul, looking at her with equal playfulness;
"though I believe your friend Don Caesar, opposite, would be more
pleased if he were sure that was all we did.
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