"You are not looking well this morning," said Trennahan, solicitously,
about twelve hours after he had appeared in the ball-room. He had just
entered the Yorbas' private parlour.
"Neither do you," replied Magdaléna.
"I sat up late with some of the men, and slept ill after."
Magdaléna raised her eyes and looked at him steadily. "You have fallen
in love with Helena," she said.
"What nonsense! My dear child, what are you talking about? Miss Belmont
asked me to take her to the conservatory; and as I do not dance, and as
you do, and as she announced her intention of not dancing again, and is
a very entertaining young woman, I decided to remain there. If our
engagement had been made known, of course I should have done nothing of
the sort. But as it was--"
"You turned white when you first saw her. Alan Rush looked just like
that. Now he is mad about her."
"I am not Alan Rush, nor any other boy of twenty-five. The man you have
elected to marry, and who is not half good enough for you, as I have
told you many times, is a seasoned person past middle age, my dearest. I
could not go off my head over a pretty face if I tried. My day for that
is long past."
He spoke vehemently.
"You never looked at me like that."
"Doubtless my pallor was due to some such unromantic cause as an
extremely bad dinner."
"I have seen that look several times. Alan Rush is not the only one. And
Helena is no doll. She has every fascination."
"Possibly. Shall we go for our walk? I am most anxious to see those old
houses and graves."
He did not offer to kiss her. She was too proud to take up woman's usual
refrain. She put on her hat, and they left the hotel, and walked toward
the town.
"I believe the cemetery comes first," she said. "I have made inquiries.
We can see the town from there, and go on afterward--if you like."
"Of course I like. How good of you to wait for me! I know you have been
longing for the town which I am convinced is a part of your very
personality."
"Yes, I have been longing. I don't care much about it this morning."
"Which of your heroines is buried in the cemetery?"
"Benicia Ortega, La Tulita, and some of aunt's old friends."
"You must certainly write those old stories. I often think of them."
"Nothing that you say this morning sounds like the truth."
"My dear girl! I am dull and stupid after a sleepless night. And the
night after you left I sat up until two in the morning writing important
letters."
"I think it was disloyal of Helena."
"I must rush to her defence. She did not know until the end of the
evening who I was. She took me for one of the several Easterners who
arrived to-day. Two of them brought letters to her father from Mr.
Forbes. One was the son of an old friend. As her father presented me--"
Magdaléna faced about. "And you did not tell her? You did not speak of
me?"
"I am going to be perfectly frank, knowing how sensible you are. I had a
desperate flirtation with your friend, as desperate and meaningless as
those things always are; for it is merely an invention to pass the idler
hours of society. There was nothing else to do, so we flirted. It added
to the zest to keep her in ignorance of my identity. It was a silly
pastime, but better than nothing. I should far rather have been in bed.
If I could have talked to you, it would have been quite another matter."
Magdaléna hurried on ahead. He had the tact not to accelerate his own
steps. After a time she fell back. She said,--
"What is this 'flirtation,' anyhow? I have heard nothing but
'flirtation' all winter, and I heard a good deal of it last summer. But
I have not the slightest idea what it means. What do you do?"
"Do? Oh--I--it is impossible to define flirtation. You must have the
instinct to understand. Then you wouldn't ask. Thank Heaven you never
will understand. Flirtation is to love-making what soda-water is to
champagne. I can think of no better definition than that."
"Did you kiss Helena?"
"Good God, no! That's not flirtation. She is not the sort that would let
me if I wished."
"Did you hold her hand?"
"I have held no woman's hand but yours for an incalculable time."
"Did you tell her that you loved her?"
"Certainly not!"
"I must say I can't see how a flirtation differs from an ordinary
conversation."
"It only does in that subtle something which cannot be explained."