"Doña Espiritu!" repeated Don Ricardo. "The lady of the Spirit—let us hope it was a good spirit, Don Keith—and that she was kind!"
"To her health!" cried Rafael. "Pour brandy, Fernando; we drink our last toast of this meeting to the love of Don Keith—to the Doña Espiritu!"
"I would rather see the ring than drink the toast," said Dolores. "May I, señor?"
"There is nothing remarkable about it, except that it is very, very old," and he held out his hand for her inspection. "An onyx engraved with the Aztec eagle—now the Mexican eagle."
"But given him by—"
"By a lady who was of service to my brother, to an old priest, and to me."
"See how he drags in the others," laughed Mrs. Bryton. "Teddy and the priest got no ring; Ted had a knife-thrust, and the priest a black eye. Keith had some hurt on the head, from which he had a long and interesting case of fever."
"Let us hope Doña Espiritu nursed him through it, and the priest did not watch them too closely," remarked Rafael, with a meaning glance at Bryton. The last drink of brandy had been the one too many, and his smile was not nice.
"Did she nurse him through the illness?" whispered Madalena in Angela's ear.
"Oh, I could tell," said the latter, demurely; "but Keith evidently resents his romances being made public."