What she had to tell Paulette Tina did not find out, but whatever it was, certain it appeared that Paulette’s eyes fell before a stolen glance Tomás gave her as she took her seat opposite him at table that evening. CHAPTER II A MOUNTAIN TOWN “Corn-fields!” cried Patty, looking from the window as the train proceeded on its way toward Bilbao. “We might almost think it our native land.” “Not with a tenth century monastery in sight,” returned her sister. “Quite true, but I hadn’t seen the tenth century monastery when I spoke. Those are surely fig trees. Where corn and apples grow can there be figs? At least one doesn’t learn from our geographies that they flourish together.” “They do here,” Don Juan told her. “You must prepare to have more than one surprise, _hermana mia_.” “I’m beginning to get them. What gorgeous views. Spain is fine. I imagined it a dry and arid plain with a weazened tree sticking up once in a while out of the dust.” “It isn’t all like this,” her sister admitted, “but you will have to confess that Asturias is wonderful.” “And Asturians?” with a sly glance at Tomás. Doña Martina frowned and Patty laughed gleefully, while Tomás looked from one to the other interrogatively. “She is a naughty child,” Doña Martina told him in his own language. “She is a charming one nevertheless,” returned Tomás in the same tongue. “What does _deleitosa_ mean?” asked Patty, rapidly turning over the leaves of the small dictionary she carried. “It is not necessary to know,” replied Doña Martina, in dignified reproof. “You look so funny when you purse up your lips that way, Tina,” said Patty, “exactly as you used when I was a little girl and would pick green gooseberries from the bushes. You have always thought you must be the one to bring me to task, being ten years older. Oh, I have found the word. Now, what must I say? _Gracias señor. Me gusto mucho._ Is that right, Juan?” She turned to her brother-in-law, who smiled an indulgent affirmative. “I shall beat you with my Spanish, Polly,” Patty went on, “and I venture to say I shall learn it before Don Tomás does English. I rather hope I may, for it is so funny to hear him say goomans for women, and moosilahga for mucilage. However, I wish there were a language we both knew and which you didn’t, Tina, then we certainly would enjoy ourselves.” “Do not listen to her, Doña Martina,” said Paulette, “she does but to tease you.” “I do but to look out the window at present,” said Patty. “See those stunning looking men. I should say they were Englishmen.” “They probably are,” Don Juan told her. “There are quite a number connected with the mines in northern Spain. These may be mining engineers.” “Oh!” Patty watched the three well set up figures approaching the train from the small station at which they had just stopped. “Do you know any of them, Juan?” she asked.