With her father was no triumph. In him sadness and doubt were so mingled with anger that he dared not lift his eyes, but gazed at the knot in the wood of the table, which looked like a caterpillar curled up. Mazaro, he concluded, had really asked the Major to come. "Mazaro tol' you?" he asked. "Yes," answered the Irishman. "Mazaro told me I was watched, and asked"-- "Madjor," unluckily interrupted the old man, suddenly looking up and speaking with subdued fervor, "for w'y--iv Mazaro tol' you--for w'y you din come more sooner? Dad is one 'eavy charge again' you." "Didn't Mazaro tell ye why I didn't come?" asked the other, beginning to be puzzled at his host's meaning. "Yez," replied M. D'Hemecourt, "bud one brev zhenteman should not be afraid of"-- The young man stopped him with a quiet laugh, "Munsher D'Himecourt," said he, "I'm nor afraid of any two men living--I say I'm nor afraid of any two men living, and certainly not of the two that's bean a-watchin' me lately, if they're the two I think they are." M. D'Hemecourt flushed in a way quite incomprehensible to the speaker, who nevertheless continued: "It was the charges," he said, with some slyness in his smile. "They _are_ heavy, as ye say, and that's the very reason--I say that's the very reason why I staid away, ye see, eh? I say that's the very reason I staid away." Then, indeed, there was a dew for the maiden to wipe from her brow, unconscious that every word that was being said bore a different significance in the mind of each of the three. The old man was agitated. "Bud, sir," he began, shaking his head and lifting his hand. "Bless yer soul, Munsher D'Himecourt," interrupted the Irishman. "Wut's the use o' grapplin' two cut-throats, when"-- "Madjor Shaughnessy!" cried M. D'Hemecourt, losing all self-control. "H-I am nod a cud-troad, Madjor Shaughnessy, h-an I 'ave a r-r-righd to wadge you." The Major rose from his chair. "What d'ye mean?" he asked vacantly, and then: "Look-ut here, Munsher D'Himecourt, one of uz is crazy. I say one"-- "No, sar-r-r!" cried the other, rising and clenching his trembling fist. "H-I am not crezzy. I 'ave de righd to wadge dad man wad mague rimark aboud me dotter." "I never did no such a thing." "You did." "I never did no such a thing." "Bud you 'ave jus hacknowledge'--" "I never did no such a _thing_, I tell ye, and the man that's told ye so is a liur!" "Ah-h-h-h!" said the old man, wagging his finger "Ah-h-h-h! You call Manuel Mazaro one liar?" The Irishman laughed out. "Well, I should say so!" He motioned the old man into his chair, and both sat down again. "Why, Munsher D'Himecourt, Mazaro's been keepin' me away from heer with a yarn about two Spaniards watchin' for me. That's what I came in to ask ye about. My dear sur, do ye s'pose I wud talk about the goddess--I mean, yer daughter--to the likes o' Mazaro--I say to the likes o' Mazaro?"