Zoraida entered so quietly that she was in the room and the door shut after her before he felt her presence.
"Bruce has gone out that way, looking for you," he said.
"I can see him presently," she answered lightly. "I think he will wait, don't you?"
"I fancy he will," he returned bitterly. "What do you want with the boy, Zoraida? What has he done to you that you should ruin him, first financially and then every other way? Aren't you afraid of what you are building up for yourself? Men like Barlow and Bruce West may let you sing their souls to sleep for a little; look out when they wake up!"
She laughed softly.
"I think that all along you have doubted my power," she said, her eyes steady on his. "Are you beginning to see that Zoraida Castelmar is a girl to reckon with? You have said that the great things I attempt are beyond me; have I failed in anything I have tried?"
"To infatuate a man is not the same thing as to build a state!"
"And yet infatuated men make obedient lieutenants."
They grew silent. In each there was much which was of its nature incomprehensible to the other and which, of necessity, must remain so. Slowly there came a different look upon the girl's face. Her eyes softened and were more wistful that he had ever thought they could be. Her breast rose and fell in a profound sigh. All of the triumph and mockery went out of her.
"Why are you so unlike other men?" she asked. And her voice, too, had softened and grown tender.