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“To the point,” interrupted Doña Isabel in an icy tone. “I had heard all this. Even in John Ashley’s very presence Herlinda had forgotten her dignity and mine. This is not what I would know.”

“But it leads to it, Madame,” cried the governess, deprecatingly, “for while I was in the state of mingled pity and perplexity caused by Herlinda’s words, a message was brought to me that John Ashley was at the door. I went to speak to him. Yielding to his entreaties, I even allowed him to see Herlinda. How could I guess it was to urge a course which only the most remarkable combination of events could have made possible?”

“Intrigante,” muttered Doña Isabel, bitterly.

“You,” continued the governess, piqued and emboldened by the adjective, “angered by the sight of him as you passed the reduction-works, had yourself invented a pretext for sending him to San Marcos. You could not well dismiss him altogether from a position he filled so well. He might, you thought, reveal the reason.”

“Deal not with my motives,” interrupted the lady haughtily. “It is true I sent him to San Marcos. And what then?”