"Certainly. The time is coming, when all that is mysterious will be made plain to you. But," added Donna Maria with emphasis, "you will have to pay for your knowledge." "Ah!" Herries was quite cool, "I thought the element of money would come into the matter. And how much?" "Say, four thousand pounds." Herries laughed. "My dear lady, I don't possess as many pence." "Not at present, but you will, when certain information is given to you. I have read the papers, Mr. Herries, and I know that you inherit fifty thousand a year, on certain conditions." "Ah, but those conditions were not mentioned in the newspapers." "Quite so," rejoined Señora Guzman, resuming her seat, "but we learned the conditions from another person." "We?" "Myself and Captain Kyles." "I have no wish," said Herries slowly, "to ask impertinent questions, madame, but I should like to know if you and Captain Kyles are in partnership?" Señora Guzman laughed in her turn. "You might put it that way," she said, resting her elbow on the shaky round table, and her chin on the back of her locked fingers. "Captain Kyles and myself intend to make our fortunes, and then marry." "But Maud----" "Maud," she interrupted fiercely, "don't talk to me of that wicked girl, or I shall lose my temper. I only hope I won't tell her some painful truths, when I see her." "Are you going to see her?" "To-day and here," Señora Guzman glanced at a bracelet watch, "in a quarter of an hour. I wrote and asked her to come here." "Why here?" "Because I want to see her in your presence." "But you don't mean to say that Maud knows anything of----" "On the contrary she knows a very great deal, and has acted towards you, Mr. Herries, in a most cruel manner." "Oh, I know that myself. Certainly there are some excuses, seeing that she has lost a fortune." "It was in her power to retain it," replied the Mexican lady coolly, "but she _would_ hover round a flame." "Is the flame Captain Kyles?" "Why should you think so?" "Because Maud was engaged to him, and----" Donna Maria seemed determined to give Herries no chance of finishing a single sentence. "She _was_ engaged, for certain reasons, but Captain Kyles will marry no one but me." "Then don't you think that he has acted very badly towards Maud?" "What do you think yourself?" she asked, irrelevantly. Herries thought for a few moments. "I know that my cousin has not acted well," he said hesitatingly, "all the same, this unfortunate engagement with Captain Kyles, and one which you admit, Señora, he never intended to fulfil, may have driven her into courses, which in more unemotional moments she would not have entered into." "I must say, Mr. Herries, that for a wronged man, you are generous." "I have had much trouble in my life," said Angus simply, "and it has taught me to judge no one."