"It was in her power to retain it," replied the Mexican lady coolly, "but she _would_ hover round a flame."
"Is the flame Captain Kyles?"
"Why should you think so?"
"Because Maud was engaged to him, and----"
Donna Maria seemed determined to give Herries no chance of finishing a single sentence.
"She _was_ engaged, for certain reasons, but Captain Kyles will marry no one but me."
"Then don't you think that he has acted very badly towards Maud?"
"What do you think yourself?" she asked, irrelevantly.
Herries thought for a few moments.
"I know that my cousin has not acted well," he said hesitatingly, "all the same, this unfortunate engagement with Captain Kyles, and one which you admit, Señora, he never intended to fulfil, may have driven her into courses, which in more unemotional moments she would not have entered into."