She appeared somewhat annoyed. "Because heaven inspires every honest heart to desire the confusion of evil schemes." "Pardon—I was foolish for an instant to believe my personality could have anything to do with it. Undoubtedly your love of fair play must have impelled you to do the same for any poor devil." "Senor, you have no right to question my motives." "I am a brute—you are an angel come to my assistance. Let us then proceed to business. From whence does this[11] threatening danger come—in which quarter am I to guard against secret foes?" [11] "You do not seem to be alarmed?" "Does that surprise you, lady? Surely then you are not well acquainted with Anglo-Saxon blood. We who sup with danger, learn to despise it. I say this deliberately and without boasting." "Ah! yes, I had forgotten your mission abroad. Your government would never have sent any but a brave cavalier to take such desperate chances. Hola! it is a pleasure to meet a man who does not shrink from a hazard." "Pardon the curiosity—but are you not Spanish?" he asked, steadily—it was of considerable importance that he should know this fact, for the most able diplomat may well look to his laurels when pitted against a female Richelieu. She answered frankly, almost eagerly. "My people are of Spanish blood, but I have only once seen Spain. I am hija de Puerto Rico." How proudly she declared it. "A daughter of Porto Rico—I am pleased to know it, for that lovely island will soon rest beneath the starry banner. A grand future awaits her under the new dispensation. I have been in San Juan myself, and shall never cease to remember that quaint city." Perhaps the evening breeze brought with it a breath of chilly fog from off old Dublin bay—at any rate the wearer of the sombre nun's garb shivered a little and seemed to shrink back from the American. "Now," continued Owen, cheerily, as though his quick eye had not noted with considerable surprise this peculiar action on her part, "we have reached the bridge. Tell me whence comes this danger?" [12]
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