"The money to buy the coal with. They found they hadn't enough, you know."
"I don't."
"Well," said Muriel, "it is really your own fault. You wouldn't let me tell you about it in the plaza. Mr. Austin had to borrow the money from his English relatives, though I think it hurt him horribly to ask them. When he found they would send it he had to catch the first African steamer."
Jacinta straightened herself suddenly, and gazed at Muriel with astonishment and dismay in her face.
"So he meant to go back all the time?" she said.
"Of course," said Muriel, and Jacinta, sitting back again, sat very still, though her companion noticed that one hand had closed tightly on her fan.
"When was he to go?" she asked, with a curious quietness.
"In a day or two. He is in Las Palmas now."
Then there was a curious silence for almost a minute, and Jacinta, who could not rouse herself to break it, was glad to see that Muriel had evidently not remembered that her only information about Austin's doings was that contained in her father's message. There was no sound but the soft splashing of the fountain, and Jacinta found the stillness becoming intolerable. It was a relief when Muriel, who felt that her company was not appreciated, rose.
"Perhaps the señora will expect me to go back," she said. "Are you coming?"