of hounds tossing and tearing at a morsel, the way his faculties caught my sentences, hounds playing a hare at the end of a run.  Oh, devious and winding are the ways of the Spaniard—­and past finding out!  But I frankly confessed my interest in you, and that you were absolutely self-contained; indeed, it was because of that I appealed to him.  I am sure he found that my sayings balanced in the most sensitive scales of his mind; and decided I was too young to be artistic with the fine tools of untruth.

“Finally, I asked about war, told him the New York papers predicted another war in Equatoria, and that I had never seen one.  The Senor declared he was very sorry if my trip to Equatoria proved a disappointment in any way, but he didn’t see what there was to fight about; that no one deplored so much as he the recent attempt upon the life of Dictator Jaffier; and as for himself, he was identified with all the interests of Equatoria, which were moving forward exceedingly well....  Altogether it was an absorbing half-hour.”

* * * * *

“And now I must tell you about Senora Key,” Miss Mallory continued hurriedly, since they could not be seen talking together long....  “She asked me to come to her rooms, and I followed a servant.  I couldn’t find the place now alone.  A small room in orange lamplight!  The Glow-worm was lying upon a tiger-rug; very tall and silken she looked, and her great yellow eyes settled upon me.  It seemed to me that her emotions had no outlet, but turned back to rend and devour each other.  I couldn’t help thinking that first moment, that some one must pay a big price for making her suffer.  Queer, wasn’t it?  And pitiful—­how she seemed to need me.  It is true, she trusted me from the beginning, seemed dying to leap into some one’s heart.  And she told me her story in whispered fragments—­heart-hunger, hatred, and mystery—­these fragments.  I’ve really been challenged to build a character out of her, and since I thought about her half the night, I ought to be able to make you see and feel her story.  I wonder if I can?  It came to me something like this: 

“There had been a night—­ah, long ago—­in which Senor Rey summoned her from her companions.  It was in a house in Buenos Aires.  The Senor had come to that house before.  The Senor was always feared.  He was always obeyed.  She, nor any of her companions, could taste the wine he bought for them.  It did not make them laugh like other wine.  Oh, yes, they drank it, but they could not taste the flavor—­with him in the room!...  On this night the Senor had bade her come with him.  She could not answer, but obey only.  She remembered how hushed her companions became when she went away with the Senor; how strangely they had looked at her—­what helpless sorrow was in their eyes....  Even now she could see the faces of her companions gathered about; the Senor smiling at the door; his carriage with black, restless ponies and shining lights; the driver upon his seat, like to whom she quickly became—­never answering the Senor, and always obeying!...  Ah, yes, there had been a hush in her house as she left it, laughter in all the other houses about; and away they had driven, past the last of the lights——­