Argosy, Vol. 1 (1882) — page 309: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

308 “We were quite sure you had for- gotten us,” cried the senorita, giving him one of those flashing looks that seemed to cut clear through him. “The Donna Anna and I have said more than once that the American senor had thoughts only for business, and eyes only for old men.” “Oh! Oh!” exclaimed Joe, depre- catingly. “ Hush, Sylvia,” said the duenna in an indulgently reproving tone, “ Senor Barber does not need to be assured that we never said anything of the kind. I fear the child will make you think you are not welcome, senor.” ‘“ Madam,” responded Joe, “ nobody enjoys frank personal raillery better than an American. I assure you, se- norita, that I treasure every one of your shots at me as 1f it were a flower that you had plucked from your hair.” The girl’s eyes sparkled at the vis- itor’s ready gallantry, and the conver- sation promptly fell into conventional channels. As long as it remained of that nature, there is nothing in it worth quoting, and nothing to be said of it, except that shortly after it began, it put the duenna to sleep. Donna Anna, well filling the com- fortable chair into which she had sunk after greeting- the American, sat with her hands placidly folded upon her lap, her mild eyes closed, and the audible token of slumber issuing at irregular intervals from her pudgy nose. - Joe glanced at her on one occasion when the nasal trumpeting was more pronounced than usual. Fully occu- pied as he was in listening to the charming senorita, he had not observed that the duenna had withdrawn so com- pletely from the conversation, and when. it dawned upon him he could not repress a momentary smile. The senorita giggled outright. “Isn’t it kind of her?” she ex- claimed. “ Good old Donna Anna! I think poor Victor would have nothing but solemn hours now that the island has been captured by the Americans, ‘ your splendid General Miles. THE ARGOSY. if it were not for the fact that she sleeps throughout every moment of his calls.” ‘“ Happy Victor,” said Joe, lugubri- ously. The senorita smiled, while she gave him another of those significant glances, and then she became suddenly serious. “No, poor fellow,” she said, “ he is not happy, and really I can’t blame him. I feel that I must apologize to you for him, Senor Barber. I know you will be generous enough, opposed though you are to him, to forgive, even if you do not sympathize with him.” Joe was a bit mystified by this re- mark. A light reply was on the tip of his tongue, to the effect that no man in Victor's relation to her had a right to be unhappy, but he suppressed it, par- ticularly in view of her suggestion that he and Victor were opposed to each other. That seemed an extraordinary state- ment for the young lady to make, and he waited with a great deal of curiosity for her explanation. “ My cousin,” she said, “ was’ a minor officer in the Volunteers, and was one of the most devoted to the Spanish cause. Inexperienced as he is, and you must see yourself, senor, that he is a mere boy in years; he really believed that the Spaniards would resist the American invasion successfully. It broke his—I was about to say heart, but I will say pride, when city after city surrendered to When he saw that there was to be no serious resistance to the American arms, he resigned in disgust, and he is one of the few men in Ponce who cannot bring himself to accept the changed situa- tion.” “So Victor is one of the irreconcil- ables?” “That is just it, senor, and that, of course, accounts for his apparent lack of cordiality when you were here to dinner.” “Oh, I assure you,” sadoJov Ghbook CO