Presently he stopped and faced me again, and in his old eyes, which were blue like his daughter's, there were tears.
"I will not conceal from you, Anstruther," he began, "the fact that your affection for Dolores has been apparent to me for some time past, and has given me cause for much thought. Not that I have distrusted you, remember," he added with a kind glance.
"I am not often deceived in a man, and I think I could trust my child to you." I gave a great gasp of pleasure, but he added immediately, "under certain circumstances."
"And those circumstances?" I asked anxiously.
"First," he began as he sank into an arm-chair, "you are of different religions; you are not a Catholic, I understand."
I answered him smiling.
"I don't think we shall disagree over that," I replied, "Dolores and her children shall worship the Almighty as she wishes. My religion is that of a man of the world, I worship with all."
The old man nodded his grey head and smiled.
"I did not expect you to be very bigoted," he answered quietly.
"Now, there is another point, Don Juan," I continued, "upon which I must satisfy you, and that is my ability to keep a wife."