I thought I saw him at the garden just
now. If I was only certain--"
"Silly girl, beware!" cried Benito, with bitter meaning. "I know him:
hateful, despicable hound! He is only trifling with you. He cares
nothing for you; you are not to his taste. What! He, a Northern
pale-faced boor, choose you, with your dark skin and black hair!
Never! I know better. Only to-day I saw him with the woman he
prefers--a fair beauty light-complexioned like himself."
He had touched the Southern woman's most sensitive chord. Jealousy
flashed from her eyes; a pang of painful doubt shot through her,
though she calmly answered--
"It is not true."
"Ask him yourself. I tell you I saw them together: first near our
stables, and then down by Waterport--a splendid woman!"
Waterport! McKay had told her he was returning from that part of the
Rock. There was something in it, then. Was he playing her false? No.
She would trust him still.
"I do not believe you, Benito. Such suspicions are worthy only of a
place in your false, black heart!" and with these words Mariquita
rushed away.
CHAPTER IX.
OFF TO THE WARS.
Next morning there was much stir and commotion in the South Barracks,
where "lay" the Royal Picts--to use a soldier's phrase. The few words
let drop by General Wilders, and overheard by Sergeant McKay, had been
verified.
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