'Oh, no, indeed.'
'Then whom were you thinking about?'
Dolores dropped her voice to its lowest tone and whispered:
'Professor Flick!' Then she glanced in some alarm towards Helena, fearing lest Miss Langley might have heard. The good girl's heart was set on sparing Miss Langley any distress of mind which could possibly be avoided. Dolores saw in a moment how her words had impressed Mrs. Sarrasin. Mrs. Sarrasin turned on Dolores a face of the deepest interest. But she had all the composure of her many campaigns.
'This is a very different business,' she said, 'from Mr. Rivers and his profession of ignorance. Do you really mean to say, Miss Paulo—you are a clever girl, I know, with sound nerve and good judgment—do you mean to say that Professor Flick really does know Spanish, although he says he does not understand it?'
'I spoke to him a few words of Spanish, and, as it so happened, I looked up at him, and quite accidentally caught his eye under his big spectacles, and I saw that he understood me. Mrs. Sarrasin, I could not be mistaken—I know he understood me. And then he recovered himself, and said that he knew nothing of Spanish. Why, there was so much of the Spanish in his accent—it isn't very much, of course—that I assumed at first that he must have come from New Orleans or from Texas.'
'I have had very little talk with him,' Mrs. Sarrasin said; 'but I never noticed any Spanish peculiarity in his accent.'
'But you wouldn't; you are not Spanish; and, anyhow, it's only a mere little shade—just barely suggests. Do you think there is anything in all this? I may be mistaken, but—no—no—I am not mistaken. That man knows Spanish as surely as I know English.'
'Then it is a matter of the very highest importance,' said Mrs. Sarrasin decidedly. 'If a man comes here professing not to speak Spanish, and yet does speak Spanish, it is as clear as light that he has some motive for concealing the fact that he is a Spaniard—or a South American. Of course he is not a Spaniard—Spain does not come into this business. He is a South American, and he is either a spy——'
'Yes—either a spy——.' Dolores waited anxiously.