Don Pedro was conscious of an appeal in the little lady's dark, liquid eyes. He yielded to it, laughed, and answered:
«I have yet to discover where your Excellency proposes to lodge me during the days in which I must inflict myself upon you. If I might now withdraw …»
The Governor swung to Dona Hernanda. «You hear? Your kinsman needs to remind us of our duty to a guest. It will not have occurred to you to make provision for him.»
«But I did not know … I was not told of his presence until I found him here.»
«Well, well. You know now. And we dine in half an hour.»
At dinner Don Jayme was in high spirits, which is to say that he was alternately pompous and boisterous, and occasionally filled the room with his loud, jarring laugh.
Don Pedro scarcely troubled to dissemble his dislike of him. His manner became more and more frigidly aloof, and he devoted his attention and addressed his conversation more and more exclusively to the despised wife.
«I have news for you,» he told her, when they had come to the dessert, «of our cousin Rodrigo.»
«Ah!» sneered her husband. «She'll welcome news of him. She ever had a particular regard for her cousin Rodrigo, and he for her.»
She flushed, keeping her troubled eyes lowered. Don Pedro came to the rescue, swiftly, easily. «Regard for one another is common among the members of our family. Every Queiroz owes a duty to every other, and is at all times ready to perform it.» He looked very straightly at Don Jayme as he spoke, as if inviting him to discover more in the words than they might seem to carry. «And that is at the root of what I am to tell you, Cousin Hernanda. As I have already informed his Excellency, the ship in which Don Rodrigo and I sailed from Spain together was set upon and sunk by that infamous pirate Captain Blood. We were both captured, but I was so fortunate as to make my escape.»