"My dear Myra, do try to preserve some sense of proportion," said Lady
Fermanagh gently. "Admittedly it was quite wrong of Don Carlos to make
passionate love to you, knowing you were betrothed to Tony, but, as I
have told you repeatedly, he was probably only following the custom of
his race and did not expect to be taken seriously in the first
instance."
"And is it an unheard-of thing in Spain for a betrothed girl to play
the part of coquette, and to flirt with the men who make love to her?"
interposed Myra again.
"No, no, not at all, but I need hardly remind you, Myra, that in
England that sort of thing simply 'isn't done.' Besides, yours was no
mere flirtation. You set out to fascinate and captivate Don Carlos, to
make him fall madly in love with you, and you seem to have succeeded.
You admit you challenged him to kiss you----"
"He had no right to take what I said to Tony as a challenge, although I
confess I said it to tantalise him."
"Humph! If I were your age, as beautiful and attractive as you, and I
had dared a man to kiss me, I should feel slighted, to say the least of
it, and regard him as a poltroon, if he failed to take up my
challenge," commented Lady Fermanagh drily. "You can't mean to say you
did not expect Don Carlos to carry out the threat or promise he made in
his note, particularly as you made no protest against his having
entered your bedroom?"
"I--er--I don't know what I expected," answered Myra, rather weakly.
"I mean, I did not intend to give him the opportunity to carry out his
threat. And I thought it best to say nothing about the note, because I
was afraid to risk a scandal, and I was somehow afraid that Don Carlos
would turn the tables on me. Now I have a good mind to tell Tony, and
to tell him what happened to-day, and leave him to deal with Don
Carlos."
"Do, by all means, my dear--if you want to make shipwreck of your
life," retorted Lady Fermanagh, sardonically. "Tony will be flattered
to find you were playing him off against Don Carlos at Auchinleven.
And perhaps not! He may decide, on reflection, that a girl who makes
love to another man, or, if you prefer it, encourages another man to
make love to her, during her engagement and in the house of her fiancé,
might do something of the same sort after marriage in the house of her
husband."