"We are in Havana, Cuba," he braced himself to reply, with some appearance of composure, which he was far from feeling.
"Havana!—Cuba!" cried Mona, breathlessly. "Ah! that explains the foreign language—and I do not know Spanish." Then facing him again with an air and look that made him cower, in spite of his bravado, she sternly asked: "Why are we here?"
"We are here in accordance with Mrs. Montague's plans," he answered.
"Mrs. Montague had no right to bring me here without consulting me," the young girl returned, passionately. "Where is Mrs. Montague?"
"I expect that Aunt Marg is in New York by this time," Louis Hamblin now boldly asserted.
"What?" almost shrieked Mona, smitten to the heart with terror at this intelligence. "Oh! you cannot mean to tell me that you and I have come to Havana alone! That—that—"
A hot blush mounted to her forehead, and for a moment she was utterly overcome with shame and horror over the terrible situation.
"Yes, that is just what we have done," Louis returned, a desperate gleam coming into his eyes, for he began to realize that he had no weak spirit to deal with.
There was a prolonged and ominous silence after this admission, while Mona tried to rally her sinking spirits and think of some plan of escape from her dreadful position.
When she did speak again she was white to her lips, but in her eyes there shone a resolute purpose which plainly indicated that she would never tamely submit to the will of the man before her.