Their debate continued for several evenings and finally ended, as Jose meant it should, in Gallito giving a reluctant consent, under certain conditions which he insisted should be rigidly carried out.

He admitted that it was unlikely that any suspicion would be aroused in the village.  Those who saw the party enter the hall would, if they thought about the matter at all, take it for granted that the stranger was some friend of Bob Flick’s who had come up with him on the train.  But two conditions Gallito insisted upon:  the first, that Jose was to turn the collar of his heavy overcoat high up about his face and draw his hat low over his brows, and the second was that he was only to be permitted to observe the dancing from behind the curtain of the little recess at the end of the hall which served Pearl as a dressing room.  He might gaze his fill through the peep-hole there, but under no circumstances was he to be seen in the body of the hall.  But these conditions, as Gallito pointed out, were entirely dependent on Pearl.  It was a question whether she would tolerate Jose for a whole evening in her dressing room.

At first she flatly refused to do so and turned a persistently deaf ear to Jose’s pleading.  She had to slip out of one frock and into another at least three times.  There would not be room with Jose sitting there.

“But, dear Senorita, I will not be sitting there,” he cried.  “When the moment comes that you change your frock I will be standing with my face to the wall and my eyes covered with my hands.”

“I should hope so,” murmured Mrs. Thomas, who was present.

But Pearl had another reason for not wishing to be alone with Jose upon this occasion.  She meant to wear her emeralds, and she was not so anxious that the light-fingered bandit should have so near a view of them.  When she mentioned this to Bob Flick and her father, however, they laughed at her fears.  Not that they trusted Jose, but, as they pointed out, no matter how much he might be tempted by the jewels, there was no possible way for him to escape with them.  He was clever enough to realize this, therefore his resistance to temptation under trying circumstances might be taken for granted.  So Pearl at last gave her reluctant consent.

Upon the afternoon of the day that Pearl was to dance Hughie brought the news that the first train bearing passengers had arrived, hours late, nearer six o’clock in the evening, than twelve, noon, when it was due; but nevertheless it had made the journey.  It brought several people, but no one seemed to know who they were.

“It is a question,” said Gallito, squinting his eyes at the sky, “whether they will get back as easily as they came.  See, the snow is again beginning to fall.”

It was still snowing as the entire party, men and women, drove down the hill to the town hall.  As there was not room for all in the mountain wagon, Seagreave again drove Pearl down in his cart.