"
"Nothing but a half-drawn curtain."
"Ah! I must try the ruse that first convinced me. Do not show yourself,
but watch, and if you speak, let it be in Spanish."
Leaving her airy cradle, Pauline bent over the balcony as if to gather
the climbing roses that waved their ruddy clusters in the wind. Before
the third stem was broken Manuel whispered, "I see the curtain move; now
comes the outline of a head, and now a hand, with some bright object in
it. Santo Pablo! It is a man staring at you as coolly as if you were a
lady in a balcony. What prying rascal is it?"
"Gilbert."
"Impossible! He is a gentleman."
"If gentlemen play the traitor and the spy, then he is one. I am not
mistaken; for since the glitter of his glass first arrested me I have
watched covertly, and several trials as successful as the present have
confirmed the suspicion which Babie's innocent complaints of his long
absences aroused. Now do you comprehend why I remained in these rooms
with the curtains seldom drawn? Why I swung the hammock here and let you
sing and read to me while I played with your hair or leaned upon your
shoulder? Why I have been all devotion and made this balcony a little
stage for the performance of our version of the honeymoon for one
spectator?"
Still mindful of the eager eyes upon her, Pauline had been fastening the
roses in her bosom as she spoke, and ended with a silvery laugh that
made the silence musical with its heartsome sound.
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