"
Here was candor undiluted. Elsie was speaking without heat. She might
have been reasoning some disputed point in ethics. The Spaniard was
obviously thrown off his guard.
"You seem to demand an explanation," he said with some warmth. "Well,
you shall have it. I am not a man to flinch from the disagreeable. I
admit a sort of impression, I might almost describe it as a conviction,
that Captain Courtenay's manner towards you betokens a growing
admiration."
"This is the wildest folly," cried Elsie in bewilderment. "I--I cannot
imagine what put such a notion into your head."
"Let me at least lay claim to a species of altruism," he replied. "I
can see fifty excellent reasons why our young and good-looking
commander should be drawn to you, nor can I urge one against it."
"But he is already engaged to another woman, so my one reason is worth
more than all your fifty."
"Ah, can that really be so?"
The tense eagerness in his voice might have warned her, were it not
that she was shocked by the bitterness which welled up in her heart.
She was amazed by this introspective glimpse; it alarmed her; she must
convince herself, at all costs, that she had spoken truly.
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