«You should have examined the letter more attentively.»
«It was damaged by sea–water!» roared the Governor furiously.
«You should have examined your conscience then. It would have told you that you had done nothing to deserve the cross of Saint James.»
Don Jayme was too stunned to resent the gibe. Not until he was home again and in the presence of his wife did he recover himself sufficiently to hector her with the tale of how he had been bubbled. Thus he brought upon himself his worst humiliation.
«How does it come, madam,» he demanded, «that you recognized him for your cousin?»
«I did not,» she answered him, and dared at last to laugh at him, taking payment in that moment for all the browbeating she had suffered at his hands.
«You did not! You mean that you knew he was not your cousin?»
«That is what I mean.»
«And you did not tell me?» The world was rocking about him.
«You would not allow me. When I told him that I did not remember that my cousin Pedro had blue eyes, you told me that I never remembered anything, and you called me ninny. Because I did not wish to be called ninny again before a stranger, I said nothing further.»