“I want you,” continued the Count de Lloseta, “to forget that this is the first time we meet, and to look upon me as a friend--one of the most intimate--of your father.”
“My father,” said the girl, “always spoke of you as such.”
“Indeed, I am glad of that. Now, tell me, who have you in the world besides Captain Bontnor?”
“I have no one. But--”
“We was thinking,” put in the Captain, in ungrammatical haste, “that Eve would come and live with me. It isn’t a grand house--just a little cottage. But such as it is, she’ll have a kindly welcome.”
“And, I have no doubt, a happy home”, added the Count, with one of his dark smiles. “I was merely wondering whether Miss Challoner intended to live in the Casa d’Erraha or to let it?”‘
Eve looked up in surprise, and Captain Bontnor’s blue eyes wandered from her face to the dark and courteous countenance of Cipriani de Lloseta.
“Perhaps,” continued the Spaniard imperturbably, “you have not yet made up your mind on the subject.”
“But the Casa d’Erraha does not belong to me,” said Eve, and Captain Bontnor wagged his head in confirmation. “Your own lawyer explained to me that my father only held it on ‘rotas.’”
“My own lawyer, my dear young lady, thereby proved himself an ass.”