“She's sure to be here,” I said to myself, as we stopped at last before the principal hotel. “Since the journey's supposed to be a pleasure trip, Carmona's bound to give his guests time to see the sights of Cordoba.”
But nothing was known of the Duke and his party at the hotel, although there was a rumour that an automobile had passed through the town in the morning.
[pg 202] The Cherub, consulted, was of opinion that if Carmona's car had come, it must have remained.
“There'd be nowhere for them to stop afterwards short of Seville,” he said, “unless Carmona, and that's near Seville. They must be lurking in Cordoba—perhaps at the Marqués de Villa-blanca's, who's a friend of the Duke's. We shall come across our lovely little lady presently, if we get about in the town; in the Paseo del Gran Capitán, or the Patio de los Naranjos, or the cathedral, or by the ruins of the Alcázar.”
“Besides, I thought you'd made up your mind not to worry till we got to Seville,” said Dick.
“So I had,” I answered. “But I have a feeling as if something had gone wrong.”
“Any reason for the feeling—except the feeling itself?” asked Dick.
I shook my head, not caring to mention the letter that might have gone astray. “Nothing I can define.”
“Then I guess it's all right, and you're developing nerves.”
“I know just how he feels,” said Pilar, with a reproachful look at Dick, with whom she was at odds since the episode of the bull. “There was an expression in Lady Monica's eyes, wasn't there, at Manzanares, as if she were sad? Oh, I saw it; and they wouldn't let me get within whispering distance of her afterwards, or I should have found out what it meant. I had the idea that they were particularly anxious to keep me away, and I wondered if there were any new reason. I'm not surprised that Don Ramón is worried. One can see that Señor Waring's never been in love!”