It was only after they were averted that I thought of interpreting their glance; and then I was prevented by a surprise that stupified me—a rage that almost rendered me frantic.
Instead of the smile—the something more which I had been fondly expecting—the look vouchsafed to me was such as might have been given to a complete stranger!
And yet it was not like this. There was salutation in it, distant, disguised under some strange reserve—to me unreadable.
Was it caution? Was it coquetry?
It stung me to think it was the latter.
I gazed after the carretela for an explanation. I was not likely to get it—now that the blind back of the vehicle was towards me, and its occupant no longer to be seen.
But I had it the instant after.
A little farther along the drive I saw a man pass out from among the pepper-trees; who, like myself, appeared to have been there “in waiting.”
Unlike me, he was on horseback—bestriding a well caparisoned steed. The man was no stranger to me. At a glance I saw who it was.
Yielding to a touch of the spur, his horse launched himself out into the road; and was pulled up close to the carretela—through the opened window of which a white arm was at the same time protruded.