‘I abide by it,’ said Raphael Craig.
Like a flash, Juana swept round and faced Richard, and he at once perceived that she had been aware of his presence.
‘Mr. Redgrave,’ she said, with head in air, and nostrils dilated, ‘Teresa has just told me that at my father’s—er—suggestion you and she have become engaged to be married.’
‘That is so,’ said Richard politely. ‘May we hope for your congratulations?’
She ignored the remark.
‘Do you know whom you are marrying?’ she asked curtly.
‘I am under the impression that I am about to marry the daughter of Mr. Raphael Craig, manager of the Kilburn branch of the British and Scottish Bank.’
‘You are about to do nothing of the sort,’ said Juana. ‘Mr. Raphael Craig has no daughter. Teresa and myself, I may explain to you, are twin-sisters, though I have the misfortune to look much the older. We have always passed as the daughters of Mr. Craig, We have always called him father. Teresa still thinks him her father. It was only recently that I discovered——’
‘Juana,’ the old man interrupted, ‘have you, too, got hold of the wild tale? It is astonishing how long a falsehood, an idle rumour, will survive and flourish.’
‘There is no falsehood, no idle rumour,’ said Juana coldly; ‘and I think it proper that Mr. Redgrave should know all that I know.’