For an instant, a chill of doubt held him silent. Within the very hour, she had told him that to keep him loyal to her father she had traded on his interest in her. Had she, for the same purpose and in the same way, encouraged Vega? To Roddy, she had confessed what she had done, and that she loved him. With that he was grandly content. But was she still hoping by her promise of marriage to Vega to hold him in allegiance, not to herself, but to her father? Was her exclamation one of warning? Had he, by his question, precipitated some explanation that Inez wished to avoid? He cast toward her a glance of anxious inquiry. To his relief, Inez reassured him with a nod, and a smile of trust and understanding.
The exchange of glances was lost neither upon Vega nor upon Señora Rojas. In turn, they looked at each other, their eyes filled with angry suspicion.
What she had witnessed caused Señora Rojas to speak with added asperity.
“Colonel Vega has my authority for what he says,” she exclaimed. “He is the son of this house. He is the future husband of my daughter Inez.”
The exclamation that now came from Inez was one of such surprise and protest that every one turned toward her.
The girl pushed from her the chair on which she had been leaning and walked toward her mother. Her eyes were flashing, but her manner was courteous and contained.
“Why do you say that?” she asked quietly. “Has Colonel Vega told you that, as he has told others? Because it is not true!”
Señora Rojas, amazed and indignant, stared at her daughter as though she doubted she had heard her.
“Inez!” she exclaimed.
“It must be set right,” said the girl. “Colonel Vega presumes too far on the services he has shown my father. I am not going to marry him. I have told him so repeatedly. He is deceiving you in this, as he is deceiving you in matters more important. He is neither the son of this house nor the friend of this house. And it is time that he understood that we know it!”