It's a common fate."
"Yes, of course," said Judge Baker, cheerfully. "You're quite
right. That's undoubtedly the solution of it. But," with a laugh,
"I had a narrow escape from saying something--eh?"
"A very narrow escape from an apparently gratuitous insult," said
Paul, gravely, but fixing his eyes, now more luminous than ever
with anger, not on the speakers but on the face of Don Caesar, who
was standing at his side. "you were about to say,"--
"Eh--oh--ah! this Kate Howard? So! I have heard of her--yees!
And Miss Yerba--ah--she is of my country--I think. Yes--we shall
claim her--of a truth--yes."
"Your countrymen, I believe, are in the habit of making claims that
are more often founded on profit than verity," said Paul, with
smileless and insulting deliberation. He knew perfectly what he
was saying, and the result he expected. Only twenty-four hours
before he had smiled at Pendleton's idea of averting scandal and
discovery by fighting, yet he was endeavoring to pick a quarrel
with a man, merely on suspicion, for the same purpose, and he saw
nothing strange in it. A vague idea, too, that this would
irrevocably confirm him in opposition to Yerba's illusions probably
determined him.
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