fortunately i did not know that before me lay a full week of useless scheming and vain longing. though we went about visiting and dining as usual, even two evenings at colonel mayron's failed to bring me the slightest relief from my suspense. alisanda was kept in such seclusion that even doña dolores could not reach her.
on the other hand, salcedo called twice at the vallois mansion and took with him medina. this caused me the most intense anxiety. i was sure of alisanda's constancy, and yet did not know what pressure their casuistic minds might bring to bear against her will.
as to this father rocus might have enlightened me, had i not feared to compromise him by a second visit. it would need only the slightest shadow of a suspicion to put don pedro and his señora on their guard against the padre. also i relied upon his reverence to inform me in some secret manner at the first change in the situation.
another sunday roused in me the wild hope of a second meeting with my lady. but though i fairly haunted the parroquia throughout the forenoon, i received no notes and saw nothing of my friends. even father rocus was absent. a casually spoken question at dinner brought me the information that he was suffering a slight attack of gout.
pike, ever eager for the display of my small skill as a physician, immediately urged upon me to offer my services to the padre. this was seconded by walker and the half-dozen guests present with us at table, for it appeared that father rocus was a general favorite in chihuahua, from the mighty salcedo down to the lowliest leproso. after much insistence on the part of the others, i at last agreed to call upon the padre and prescribe for him.
our little dinner, though frugal, was a merry one, for our host and the guests were in high spirits over the prospect of a baile, or ball, that evening. though this ball was given at the house of a family we had not previously visited, walker took pike and myself as a matter of course.
when we arrived we found most of the élite of the city already assembled in the large ballroom. indeed, the first couple upon whom i set eyes were doña dolores malgares and his excellency, don nimesio salcedo, commandant-general of the internal provinces of the kingdom of new spain, whirling about in a spanish dance that displayed far more liveliness than dignity.
we were duly presented to our hostess, and made our compliments; after which pike plunged into the whirl with all the zest of his gallant nature. i drew apart, to overlook the gay scene in search of my lady. not that i had much hope of seeing her, but i had learned that almost anything seemed possible in this land of intrigue.
at once i was challenged from all sides by brilliant-eyed señoras and señoritas. but even had i wished to take one as partner, i was unacquainted with the now spirited, now voluptuous measures of this peculiar spanish dance. pike, daring at all times and in all places, was attempting the step with the aid of a plump and kindly señorita.
i was more than content to keep back and look on, while my ears drank in the seductive melody of mingled guitar and violin and singing voices which floated down the ballroom from the stand of the musicians. both the oddness and the agreeableness of this music was enhanced when at certain intervals the guests joined in the singing.
confusing as was the whirl of the dance, i soon identified all present who were known to me, the first turn of the dancers bringing me a smile from my stately friend malgares and a hostile stare from lieutenant medina. the dread to which the latter had reduced many of his fellow-officers was evident from the manner in which the young subaltern who had pressed up beside me shrank away at the first glance of the aide's baleful little eyes.
wondering how soon medina would force a duel upon me, i drifted idly up the room and back toward the entrance. no more guests had arrived since ourselves, and i had given over all hope of seeing alisanda. but as i approached the moorish arch of the ballroom doorway i caught a glimpse of don pedro in the anteroom. it took me only a few moments to gain the doorway. the close group of young officers about don pedro convinced me that my lady was with him. i thrust myself unceremoniously into their midst. doña marguerite sought to interpose, but, with a bow, i slipped around her, and bent to salute the hand which alisanda held out to me. i was relieved to see that, like the rest of the ladies present, she was dressed in the spanish national mode, and also that she seemed in good health and spirits.
"god keep you, amigo!" she said in a clear voice.
"muchas gracias, señorita! may i beg the honor of your first dance?"
"it is yours, señor," she responded.
the other men fell away as she took my arm. don pedro stepped forward as though to interpose, but desisted at a sign from doña marguerite. i entered the ballroom with colors flying and the loveliest girl in all the world upon my arm. for the moment fortune was with me. the spanish dance had reached an end, and the musicians were striking up a waltz. nothing could have suited me better. dancing was one of my few accomplishments, and it was the very poetry of love and life to circle about the long room with my darling in my arms, in rhythm to the pulsing throb of the sweetest and softest of music.
it was no more than human that my bliss should key yet higher with a tang of triumph as i glided with my lovely partner under the nose of the scowling salcedo and past the lowering visage of his andalusian aide. it might be that i was to meet my death from one or the other of them, but for the time at least i was the happiest man beneath heaven. i was in paradise.
before i was forced to relinquish her to doña marguerite at the stopping of the music, i received my dear girl's pledge to give me all the waltzes of the evening. more she dared not promise for fear of the interference of her aunt. as may be imagined, it was a severe trial to see her led out by another partner, even though she accepted pike instead of medina for the voluptuous fandango and though doña dolores contrived to pilot me into the set in which my lady danced the minuet as partner to his excellency, don nimesio.
before the close of the baile, medina's persistence and his open warning off of the other officers won him two dances, strive as my lady would to avoid him. but even he lacked the assurance to interfere with salcedo's marked attentions, and, for the rest, pike, malgares, and myself contrived to foil him in every attempt, with the two exceptions mentioned. for myself, i had the divine joy of dancing every waltz with my lady, and it did not lessen my rapture that medina followed us each time with a gaze which would have struck me dead had it possessed the power.
such bliss could not last. all too soon the ball began to draw to a close, and when i came to lead out alisanda for the last waltz, doña marguerite interposed with the statement that they were about to leave. making the best of the situation, i claimed and was granted the privilege of escorting my darling to the coach. such complaisance on the part of her duenna astonished me. i could account for it only on the supposition that señora vallois thought to spur on salcedo's ardor and jealousy by the sight of a favored suitor.
however that may have been, the last of my successes of the evening still farther infuriated the truculent medina. it is not improbable he would have challenged me that night had not my failure to obtain a word apart with alisanda induced me to follow the vallois coach all the way across the city.
watching from the corner of the plaza, i saw the coach roll in between the wide-flung gates of the vallois mansion. i waited perhaps half an hour, then stole silently up the street to my black doorway, across from her balcony, and began to murmur the song which had twice brought me a response from her. almost immediately a light appeared behind the drawn hangings. i started forward eagerly, only to check myself and step back into the denser darkness of my lurking place. a hand had parted the curtains, and between them appeared the frowning face of don pedro.
i went home, if not in as black a mood as medina, at least not disposed to kindly thoughts toward my enemies.
