"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, senora," 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. "You lived in England; you were brought up there?" she said, still in the same impassive voice. "Yes," said Derrick. "I lived in London, with my guardian--with the people who took care of me--until they died. Then I went to a place in the country, a quiet place where I could study with less interruption than one gets in London." "You were all alone--I mean, you had no relatives?" asked Donna Elvira. "No," said Derrick, gravely; and, after a pause, he added: "You will think this strange, too, senora--I know nothing, literally nothing, of my family. It is just possible that I have no relations. There are such cases. Anyway, though of course I asked the usual questions of my guardians, they could, or would, tell me nothing. Perhaps they didn't know. All I could learn was that they had known my mother quite slightly--and that they had been much surprised when I was brought to them with the request that they would adopt me." "Do you desire to tell me, senor, why you left England?" asked Donna Elvira. "Yes; I want to," said Derrick, after a moment or two's silence. "I feel as if I wanted to confide in someone. Perhaps it's because you've been so kind to me, have--well, taken me on trust. But I'm afraid I can't tell you, senora. You see, other persons are mixed up with the affair. Let it go at this--I beg your pardon, I mean I hope you will be satisfied if I confine myself to saying that I got into trouble over there in England." "Trouble?" She knitted her brows. "You mean--what do you mean?" "There you are!" said Derrick, with a shrug of despair. "I was accused of--well, something that I didn't do, but to which I couldn't plead innocence." Donna Elvira regarded him closely.