When Rosa at last appeared, O'Reilly felt called upon to tell her,
somewhat dizzily, that she was beyond doubt the sweetest flower on
all the Quinta de Esteban, and since this somewhat hackneyed
remark was the boldest speech he had ever made to her, she blushed
prettily, flashing him a dimpled smile of mingled pleasure and
surprise.
"Oh, but I assure you I'm in no sweet temper," said she. "Just now
I'm tremendously angry."
"Why?"
"It's that stepmother--Isabel."
"So! You've been quarreling again, eh? Well, she's the easiest
woman in all Matanzas to quarrel with--perhaps the only one who
doesn't see something good in me. I'm afraid to talk to her for
fear she'd convince me I'm wholly abominable."
Rosa laughed, showing her fine, regular teeth--O'Reilly thought he
had never seen teeth so even and white. "Yes, she is a difficult
person. If she dreamed that I see you as often as I do--Well--"
Rosa lifted her eloquent hands and eyes heavenward. "I suppose
that's why I enjoy doing it--I so dearly love to spite her."
"I see!" O'Reilly puckered his brows and nodded. "But why, in that
case, haven't you seen me oftener? We might just as well have made
the good lady's life totally unbearable."
"Silly! She knows nothing about it." With a flirtatious sigh Rosa
added: "That's what robs the affair of its chief pleasure.
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