Ramón,” said Doña Carlota. “She cannot bear the sound of that drum. Must it play any more this afternoon?”
There was a moment’s pause, before he answered:
“After four o’clock only.”
“Must we have that noise to-day?” Carlota persisted.
“Why not to-day like other days!” he said. But a certain darkness was on his brow, and it was evident he wanted to leave the presence of the two women.
“Because the Señora is here: and I am here: and we neither of us like it. And to-morrow the Señora will not be here, and I shall be gone back to Mexico. So why not spare us to-day! Surely you can show us this consideration.”
Ramón looked at her, and then at Kate. There was anger in his eyes. And Kate could almost feel, in his powerful chest, the big heart swelling with a suffocation of