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But come," as he settled himself into a loose white flannel jacket, "let us join our host, who, I have reason to believe, is awaiting our presence at his dinner-table. Heave ahead, Pedro, my lad; we're quite ready to weigh." Pedro might have understood Smellie's every word, so promptly did he fling open the door and bow us to follow him.
But the cool intrepidity which I had just witnessed was contagious; in my sublime admiration of it my soul soared far above and beyond the reach of so debasing a feeling as fear, and in my turn I met the cruel sinister gaze of the crafty savage with one as calm as Smellie's own.
But she amply redeemed this want of colour by the deep rosy flush with which she greeted Smellie's approach and the low whispered request in response to which she placed her hand on his arm and retired with him to the verandah.
It was a painful business; for though we had not known Don Manuel and his daughter very long, we had still known them quite long enough to have acquired for them both a very large measure of esteem and regard in Smellie's case there could no longer be the least doubt that his feelings toward his hostess were even warmer than this so we hurried over the leave-taking with all speed, and then set off down the pathway, under Pedro's guidance, on our road to the creek.
As for Antonia, it was easy to see that the new guest was to her an unwelcome one, and his persevering attentions distasteful to her; yet, either because he was a guest or for some other cogent reason, she evidently did her best to be agreeable and conciliatory to the man, casting, however, slight furtive deprecatory glances in Smellie's direction, from time to time, as she did so.
The Milltown trip had not been without its tragic consequences of a small sort; for the next week Minnie Smellie's mother told Miranda Sawyer that she'd better look after Rebecca, for she was given to "swearing and profane language;" that she had been heard saying something dreadful that very afternoon, saying it before Emma Jane and Living Perkins, who only laughed and got down on all fours and chased her.
Immediately there was a shout, in Spanish, of "Come on, men, give it him!" and the group made a dash at Smellie and his companion. Then followed an exclamation of surprise and anger in Smellie's well-known voice, a single stifled scream from Dona Antonia, and a most unmistakable affray. With a shout I dashed up the path, and in another minute or less plunged into the thick of the melee.
If, however, any such idea really entered his mind he was careful to restrain all expression of it, and at the end of Smellie's narrative he uttered just the few courteous phrases of polite concern which seemed appropriate to the occasion and then allowed the subject to drop.
As in the first instance, so now again was the wand pointed at Smellie's breast, and once more the cruel crafty bearer of it advanced on tip-toe with a stealthy cat-like tread toward us.
She was an utterly loveless woman, living unloving, and unloved a terrible condition. One could not like her. Deadly dull, narrow, pedantic, petty, uninspiring, Miss Smellie's ideals, standards, and aims were incredibly low. She lived, and taught others to live, for appearances.
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