"Ah!" replied her lover, waggishly; "I think you can trust Don Felipe to look after Eulalia."
"Do you think there will be a war, Juan?"
"It looks like it. However, we shall know for certain when the messenger comes back from Acauhtzin."
"Yes; my uncle told me the boat had gone up to-day to bid the fleet return."
"A wild-goose chase only," thought Jack, but held his peace, lest he should alarm Dolores.
Fearful of attracting her uncle's attention by speaking too much to Jack, the Spanish beauty crossed over to where Philip and Eulalia were sitting.
"Señor Felipe!" said Dolores, gaily, "wherefore do you laugh?"
"It is at Don Pedro and my good aunt," replied Eulalia, before Philip could speak. "Behold them, Dolores, making signs like wooden puppets."
Dolores turned her eyes towards the couple leaning over the azotea railing, and began to laugh also. Then Jack came over and demanded to be informed of the joke. He was speedily informed of the performance going on above; so that the two actors had quite an audience, although they knew it not. Indeed the affair was sufficiently grotesque. It was like a game of dumb crambo, as Peter acted a word, and the old lady tried to guess his meaning.
For instance, wishing to tell her how he captured butterflies, Peter wagged his hands in the air to indicate the flight of insects, then struck at a phantom beetle with an imaginary net.