“My dear madam, I have arrived at the mature age of twenty-seven, and probably twenty-six of them are full of regrets for lost chances. But there is a question of real seriousness I should like to put to you,” I said very gravely.
“Well?”
“What is the name of the third, no the fourth bluff, to the north of the river mouth?”
She turned and bent those strange eyes of hers upon me with an intent stare. “You mean me to understand that you regard everything I have said—my warning, my questions, everything—as a mere jest.”
“I mean that, although I am by the way of being a wilful person, I am not an ungrateful one; and that if you would do me the honour one day of making up a little party to view that bluff from the deck of my yacht, it would give me great pleasure and I hope promote that better understanding between us which I should like to think you desire as much as I.”
“I accept willingly,” she replied with a smile; but even then she could not resist a thrust. Looking at me out of the half-veiled corners of her eyes she asked: “May I bring Major Sampayo?”
“By all means, and Dr. Barosa and any others of your colleagues—even the fair Miralda; and I will have cosy corners specially fitted up for you all where you may talk politics or personalities as you prefer.”
Again her strange eyes fastened on mine, searchingly. “What do you really mean by that?” she asked, with tense earnestness.
“Oh, please don’t let us get serious again, and read grave meanings into mere trifling banalities,” I exclaimed with a laugh. “I mean no more than that I should try to give you all a good time and let you enjoy it in your own way.”
“If I am to enjoy it, Mr. Donnington, you must ask Miralda’s brother, Lieutenant de Linto.”