Bandit Love

"Pardon, your ladyship," he said. "The Countess of Carbis wishes to

speak to you on the telephone."

"Good! I particularly want to speak to her," said Lady Fermanagh,

rising. "Excuse me, Don Carlos. Myra, my dear, give Don Carlos some

tea."

Don Carlos laughed softly as the door closed behind her ladyship, and

his dark eyes were sparkling wickedly as he looked at Myra.

"Did I not warn you, sweet lady, that love would find a way?" he said.

"We have a proverb in Spain that the way to make sure of winning a girl

is to make love to her mother. As you have no mother, I made love last

night to Lady Fermanagh, who, I was told, is your guardian, and she

invited me to call. Hence my presence here. The fates are kind, and

now I can make love to you in earnest. Myra, darling, my heart is all

afire with love for you, and all my being is crying out for you."

Myra drew herself up to her full height, regarding him disdainfully and

endeavouring to put all the hauteur she could summon up into her manner

and expression.

"Here in England, Don Carlos, we call a man a cad who persists in

attempting to force his unwanted attentions on a girl," she remarked

icily. "I do not know if there is a Spanish equivalent for the word

cad."

"'Cad'? Let me think," drawled Don Carlos, seemingly not a whit

rebuffed, his dark eyes still twinkling mischievously. "In Spanish,

'cad' would be 'mozo' or 'caballerizo.' 'Caballerear' means to set up

for a gentleman. You must let me teach you Spanish, Myra. It is an

ideal language in which to make love. Let me tell you in Spanish that

I love you, that you are the most beautiful, adorable, fascinating and

seductive girl I have ever met, the loveliest and most enticing

creature ever created, the woman of my dreams, my ideal, and my

predestined mate."

"Let me tell you in plain English that you are the most impudent,

offensive and exasperating man I have ever met!" exclaimed Myra, shaken

by a gust of angry resentment. "I don't want to talk to you, señor,

and I repeat that you are behaving like a cad!"

Don Carlos sighed lugubriously and turned up his eyes to the ceiling.

"I am spurned!" he lamented, as if soliloquising. "I am desolated!

The most wonderfully beautiful girl in the world rebuffs me and calls

me a cad when I offer her my heart and the love for which many another

woman would barter her very soul! My Myra thinks I am the most

exasperating and impudent man in the world! Condenacion! Still, I

must be unique in one respect!" He lowered his eyes to look at Myra

again. "So this is English hospitality, señorita!" he resumed, after a

pause. "The Lady Fermanagh, your charming aunt, told you to offer me

tea, but not even a spoonful have you proffered me."