“Let’s go out to the Albuquerque road. I must be back in ten minutes. It is safer there, because no one will see us.”
“Why shouldn’t they see us?” he asked wonderingly.
She laughed excitedly and glanced at him with black eyes that looked like kitten’s. Where on earth could they have known each other? There was certainly something about her that seemed familiar, but who was she? Had she ever been at the house? Perhaps she had, but if so when? And yet he had a memory that her name was Maria. Certainly, that much he knew—Maria.
“I have not seen you for a long time,” she told him. “I think it has been a month.”
This was even more mystifying. He answered, “I know, I’ve been busy.”
“So have we,” she said. “We have been very busy because Mr. Lyons has started a beautiful big picture. I work very hard with him.”
Suddenly he knew. She was the little girl who posed for Tommy Lyons when he did his Mexican murals. Maria Martinez: Mrs. Lyons was very fond of her and treated her like a daughter. He’d been up at Lyons’ one day with Mary, trying to prevent her buying a picture from Tommy, and Maria had been posing with a jar on her shoulder. That was all. He was glad that he knew, though.
“How is Teddy?” she was asking. “I never see him any more. I ask Revelita why he is never at home, but she says nothing about him. I cannot make her talk.”
“Revelita? Who is that?”
“She works for Meester Stuart. You know—Revelita. Teddy was much in love with her.”