"Oh, forgive me, Clementina, I came here, hardly knowing what I was doing. I am so miserable;" and the tears streamed down her face.

"But what has happened then, my poor dear?"

"Nothing, nothing," sobbed the girl. There was a short silence.

Clementina looked at her compa.s.sionately.

"Come," she said, leaning over her, "It is Emilio. He has done something to vex you this evening."

Irene made no reply.

"Do not break your heart over it, silly child. That will do nothing to mend matters. However great the effort, try to seem indifferent. That is the only way to prevent his despising you. Nay, there is a better way, but I do not advise you to try it; there are things one cannot advise.

But still, even if you are in love with him, do not offer him your heart to wring, for G.o.d's sake! Never let him know how unhappy he makes you, or you are lost. Let him have his whim out, and he will come back to you."

Irene raised her face, bathed in tears.

"But have you seen--do you know what he has done? It is dreadful."

At this instant Clementina heard a step in the corridor, and suspecting who it might be, she hastily went to look out, saying: "Wait till I shut the door."

She was only just in time; Raimundo arrived at the moment; she put her finger to her lips, and signed to him to go away. Irene saw nothing of it.

When Clementina returned to her side, Irenita poured out, between sighs and tears, the grievances her husband had heaped upon her that evening.

In the first place Emilio had chosen to come to the ball in a Hungarian costume. As soon as she came in, she had perceived that Maria Huerta also wore a Hungarian dress, and this, it must be owned, was a piece of insolence, which more than one person had remarked upon. Then they had danced together twice, and all the while, Emilio had never ceased murmuring in her ear. He had waited on her like a servant the whole evening, offering her ices and fruit with his own hands. Once, as he handed her a plate, their fingers had met. Irenita had seen it with her own eyes. Oh, it was monstrous! Irene only longed to kill herself. She would rather die a thousand deaths than endure such torments.

Clementina comforted her as best she could. Emilio loved her fondly, she was sure; only men liked to show off in this way and prove their powers of fascination. As their hearts were not engaged, there was nothing for it but to let them go for a while, and then they returned to the wife they really loved.

Clementina would not take her to the ladies' cloak-room to have her hair rearranged and to bathe her face; she led her up to the d.u.c.h.ess's dressing-room, and in a few minutes they came down stairs again. Irenita promised not to betray herself. When Clementina reported to Pepa all that had pa.s.sed, the widow flew into such a fury that she was with difficulty hindered from rushing off to abuse her son-in-law.

"Well, it is all the same," she said, with a shrug. "If I do not scratch his face now, I will do it later. Come what may, I cannot allow that scoundrel to be the death of my daughter; and as for that bare-faced s.l.u.t, she will not get off till I have spit in her face, and in her husband's ugly phiz, too! A pretty state of things!"

"Would it not be better to get rid of them altogether? Huerta is in office. See if you cannot get him packed off somewhere as Governor?"

"You are right. I will speak of it to Arbos at once; but as to that precious son-in-law of mine, I will pay him out this very night, or my name is not Pepa."

The Duke, surrounded by a group of faithful flatterers, was inhaling clouds of incense, growling out some gross witticism every now and then, which was hailed with applause. The ladies were the most enthusiastic in their admiration. Requena's genius for speculation dazzled them with amazement, as though they would like to calculate how many new dresses his millions would purchase. And he, usually so subservient, he--who, by his own confession, had reached the position he held by dint of kicks behind--lording it here among his worshippers, bullied them without mercy. His coa.r.s.e jests were flung at men and women alike; he gloried in the brutal exercise of his power. And if these devotees were ready to humble themselves so patiently for nothing--absolutely nothing--what would they not have done if he had given largesse of his millions, if the golden calf had begun to vomit dollars.

In the card-room, whither he went after attending the retirement of their Majesties, a crowd of speculators literally blocked him in.

"How are the Riosa shares looking, Senor Duque?" one made so bold as to ask.

"Do not talk of them," grumbled the man of money, with a furious glare.

Llera's scheme had been punctually carried out. The Duke, after buying up a large number of shares, had set to work to produce a panic among the shareholders. For some months he had been employing secret agents to buy, and sell again immediately at a loss. Thanks to these tactics, the quotations had fallen very low. He was now almost ready for his great coup, buying up all he could get to throw them suddenly into the market, and then securing half the shares, _plus_ one.

"Everything cannot turn out well," said the man who had addressed him, not without a smile of satisfaction. "You have always been so lucky."

"The Duke does not owe his success to luck," said a stock-broker bent on flattery, "but to his genius, his incomparable skill and ac.u.men."

"No doubt, no doubt," the other hastened to put in, s.n.a.t.c.hing the censer, as it were. "The Duke is the greatest financial genius of Spain.

I cannot understand why he has not the entire management of the Treasury. If it is not placed in his hands, the country is past praying for."

"Well, if I tried to save it after the fashion of the Riosa Mining Company, it would be a bad look out for the Spaniards," said the Duke, in a sulky, mumbling voice.

"Why, is it such a rotten concern?"

"For the Government, no, d.a.m.n it; but for me, after buying it at par, it does not seem to be much of a success."

And he cast all the blame of the transaction on his head clerk, that idiot Llera, who had insisted on having a finger in that pie, in spite of his, the Duke's, presentiments.

"Ah! a man like you should never trust anything but his instincts," they all declared. "When a man has a real genius for business--" And again the word genius was on the lips of every idolater of the golden calf.

Suddenly, at the door of the card-room, Clementina was seen, closely followed by Osorio, Mariana, and Calderon. All four looked disturbed and dismayed, and they all four fixed their eyes on Salabert, whom they eagerly approached.

"Papa, one word, one minute," said Clementina.

Salabert quitted the group, of which he was the centre, and joined the quartette in the further corner of the room.

"That woman is here," said his daughter in an agitated whisper, but her eyes flashed fire.

"It is scandalous," said Osorio.

"Some people have left already, and as soon as it is known every one will go!" added Calderon, more calmly.

"What woman?" asked Requena, opening his eyes very wide.

Clementina explained in a tone of pa.s.sionate scorn--a woman whom the Duke was known to visit. It was Amparo.

"What!" he exclaimed, with well acted surprise. "That hussy has dared to come to this house? Who let her in? I will dismiss the door-keeper to-morrow morning."

"No. What you have to do is to dismiss her this instant!" cried Clementina, stuttering with rage.

"Of course, this instant! How dare she set foot in this house, and on such an occasion? But how did she get in? A ball which began so well!"

"She has a card, it would seem."

"Then she has stolen it, or it is a forgery."

"Well, well," said Clementina, who knew her father well enough to guess that he had been cajoled into giving the invitation, a bounty which had cost him nothing. "Settle the matter at once. She is in the drawing-room. You must go and explain to her that she must have the goodness to take herself off. Say what you choose, but at once. Before any one discovers her--above all mamma."

"No, my child, no. I know myself too well. I could not control my indignation. We must do nothing to attract attention. Go yourself--go, and get rid of her at once."

This was enough for Clementina. Without another word she swiftly returned to the drawing-room, her face pale and set, her lips quivering.

In a moment she discovered the foe.

Certainly she was a handsome creature, magnificently dressed as Mary, Queen of Scots, and her beauty was fuel to Clementina's wrath. After wheedling Salabert to give her a card, it had occurred to the _demi-mondaine_ that her appearance at the ball might cause a scandal, but she longed to display herself in the costly costume she had chosen, and taking a respectable-looking old friend as a chaperon, she went very late, just to walk once or twice through the rooms. It was a bitter surprise to find that even the men of her acquaintance, the members of the Savage Club, here turned their backs and walked away.

Her enjoyment, such as it was, was brief. Just as she was moving forward, with a triumphant smile, to make her longed-for progress through the rooms, she found herself face to face with Clementina, who, without the slightest greeting, holding her head very high, laid her hand on her shoulder, saying: