"What a brute you sound when you talk, Ernesto!"
"No, no, it's only that you won't understand me! You know I am not a brute, a more kind person never lived than I am! I wish everybody to be happy, and so I am happy myself. What good would it do anybody if I were miserable? Why are you not happy, Teresa?"
She shook her head, smiling faintly.
"It's nothing you could understand, Ernesto," she said absently.
No man could understand—least of all could a Latin understand!
"I understand a good deal about men and women," he responded, nodding his head sagely. "Much more than you think. You have had a love-quarrel, and you're"
"I'm what?" said Teresa, half offended.
"Don't be angry with me. I won't say it—I don't know you well enough yet. … Tell me, what is your husband like?"
"Oh, like all husbands, I suppose—only handsomer," said Teresa, laughing.
"Does he bully you?"
"No—perhaps I bully him."
"Ah, yes, you are a typical American! Now there is Nina, she bullies me out of my life. The worst of that is, one seeks to be consoled elsewhere. Eh?"
He cast a keen glance at Teresa, and she felt
