Bandit Love
Page 50"Why, of course you may smoke, Tony," she said, after ringing the bell
and ordering more tea. "I'll have a cigarette myself to soothe my
nerves."
"Never noticed any signs of nerves about you, old thing," laughed Tony,
as he proffered his case and struck a match to light the cigarette Myra
accepted. "Nerves! The risks you have been taking of late in the
hunting field have made my blood run cold. The way you took that hedge
last week during the run with the Quorn made my heart stand still.
Honestly, Myra, I shall be glad when I have you safely aboard the
Killarney, and we are on our way to Spain."
"Not going to Spain?" repeated Tony, in surprise.
"No, Tony, I am not going to Spain. Don Carlos has offended me beyond
pardon."
"I say, Myra, you're ragging, aren't you?" asked Tony. "I thought you
had made it up with Don Carlos. Don't tell me the villain has been
making love to you again!"
"Why, of course I have," exclaimed Don Carlos. "I am madly in love
with Myra, and it is because she is afraid of falling as desperately in
love with me as I am with her, and being forced, in consequence, to
of me--and of love."
"What a pair of leg-pullers you are!" chuckled Tony, assuming the whole
thing was a jest. "Half the men one meets are in love with Myra, but I
refuse to believe she is afraid of any of them."
"Ah, but she is afraid of me, my dear Standish, and you should realise
I am your most dangerous rival," Don Carlos said gravely, and again
Tony chuckled amusedly. "Perhaps it is not only of me but of herself,
and for herself, that Myra is afraid," Carlos continued, with a
challenging glance at Myra, who felt she would like to box his ears and
afraid of being captured by El Diablo Cojuelo, who would make her an
ideal husband."
"I say, that's hardly complimentary, old fellow!" Tony commented.
"Sort of faux pas, isn't it, to suggest that a brigand would be a
better husband for Myra than yours truly, and that Myra is a suitable
wife for a brigand?"