Richard looked in the direction to which she was pointing, and his expression showed plainly enough that he was perturbed.
“It is the señorita de Rojas,” he said, blushing slightly. “She’s still nothing but a kid! I know her quite well. She is like a younger sister to me, or rather, a pal.... You don’t for a moment imagine....”
But Elena was smiling ironically as though she did not believe what he was saying; and finally in a tone so cold that it hurt the youth’s feelings, she commanded—
“Go and speak to her, otherwise she will be following and watching us all the afternoon. Then come back to me!”
Obediently the young man turned his horse into the rough matorral brush that crackled like dry wood under his horse’s hoofs.
Celinda at once stopped her cavortings in the distance and galloped to meet him, shaking her finger at him as she came near, and looking as like an offended school-teacher as she could. With tremendous seriousness she inquired,
“Haven’t I told you more than a hundred times, Mr. Watson, that I didn’t want to see you with ... that woman? Besides I have been riding everywhere these last few days without finding you,—and then when at last I do stumble upon you, I find you in bad company!”
But Richard Watson was no longer the youth she had known. He no longer greeted her foolish little speeches with an outburst of laughter. On the contrary he looked offended, though her tone had been a jesting one. Drily, he replied,
“I shall keep what company I choose, señorita. There is, I believe, nothing more between us than a sincere friendship, in spite of what people may choose to say. You are not engaged to me, nor do I need to limit my acquaintance simply to satisfy your whims.”
Celinda was speechless with astonishment. Taking advantage of this fact, Watson saluted her in a coldly ceremonious fashion, and galloped off in the direction taken by Elena. But when the girl became convinced that the young North American was really riding away from her, she angrily shook her fist in the air; then she broke into supplicating cries,