One jesting compliment Marcelino exchanged with the fair Elisa, and then went up to salute his aunt.
"How cruel of you to leave Elisa to herself," said Doña Josefina; "do not you see they are just going to dance?"
"I have been shooting all day, aunt, I had rather talk to you than dance."
"Stupid!" said she.
But Marcelino hardly heard the remark, looking eagerly all round the large saloon for a face that he could not see, yet Magdalen, for whom he was looking, was close to him. She had seen, him enter the room, seen him speak to Elisa Puyrredon, and had then retired into the deep recess of a window as he approached to speak with Doña Josefina.
"For whom are you looking? She is there where you left her," said Doña Josefina.
"Yes, I see she is, aunt, but she is going to dance with Valentin."
"With Valentin! I will soon arrange that for you. Give me your arm, I have been looking for Valentin all evening."
So Marcelino was walked off by his aunt, and presently found himself dancing with Elisa Puyrredon.
Don Ciriaco Asneiros had taken so much trouble to ingratiate himself with Don Alfonso Miranda, and had succeeded so well by the assistance of Doña Josefina, that that lady made sure one of her schemes would end successfully. She was therefore greatly chagrined when she learned from Don Alfonso, on the occasion of her last visit to the Miserere, that her plan of marrying her protegé to Magdalen was likely to fall through. Don Alfonso had spoken to her vaguely of a certain distrust of the motives of Don Ciriaco for his repeated visits to the quinta, but Doña Josefina had found no great difficulty in laughing him out of his suspicions, she herself had no doubt whatever of the reasons which took that gallant officer so often to the Plaza Miserere. She had twitted him once or twice upon the subject, and all his answers had tended to prove to her that he had quite given up any hopes he might ever have formed of winning the love of her niece Dolores, and now thought only of Magdalen. Thus she treated him with greater favour than ever and began to take some real interest in him, for his manners had greatly improved under her tuition. He was high in favour with Marshal Liniers and with Don Roderigo Ponce de Leon, and General Nieto seemed to place great confidence in him; her pupil was evidently a man who would do her credit.