"Yours, señor, by her Excellency's instructions." He disappeared, but

presently returned and laid a pile of clothes on the bed with another,

"Yours, señor. I will await you."

With a feeling of bewilderment, of unreality, Derrick changed into the

fresh clothes slowly, eyeing and touching them as if he suspected

something of magic in them.

A little while afterwards the major-domo appeared and led him into a

luxuriously-furnished room. Donna Elvira was reclining in a chair; she

inclined her head slightly and motioned him to be seated opposite her.

At his entrance she had shot one swift glance at him, her brows had

Advertisement..

drawn together, and her lips had quivered; but now she sat calmly, her

hands clasped tightly in her lap. Derrick was the first to speak.

"I want to thank you, señora, for your great kindness to me," he said,

with all a man's awkwardness. "It is all the greater because I am a

stranger, a man you know nothing about----"

He paused at this, and his face grew red, for the story of the forged

cheque flashed across his mind.

She raised her eyes and looked at him.

"It is nothing," she said, in a low voice. "One in my position learns to

judge men and women by their faces, their voices. Besides, I have told

you that I have been in England, and I know when one is a gentleman.

But, if you wish, if you think you would like me to know more, you may

tell me--just what you please." There was a slight pause. "For instance,

your father--was he an engineer, like yourself?"

Derrick leant back and crossed his legs, and looked, not at the pale

face before him, but at the floor, and his brows were knit.

"It will sound strange to you, señora," he said, slowly, "but I don't

know what my father was--not even what kind of a man he was. I never saw

him--to remember him."

"He died--when you were young?" asked Donna Elvira.

"Yes," assented Derrick, "and my mother, too. They must have been fairly

well off--not poor, I mean--for they left me, or, rather, the people in

whose charge they placed me, sufficient money to bring me up and educate

me, and enable me to gain a profession."

A shaded lamp stood on a table at the side of Donna Elvira's chair. As

if she found the light oppressive, she moved the lamp farther back, so

that her face was completely in the shade.




Most Popular