He tipped his hat, smiled and said: "Good morning, Miss Lane."
"Oh, it's you, is it?" she answered with a little laugh. "Why, I
declare, how you frightened me!"
"I am sorry for it."
"Never mind; I will survive the shock; but I know why you came to
Mariana," and there was a roguish twinkle in her blue eyes.
"Do you?"
"Yes, you fought the lieutenant and had to run away."
"Miss Lane, how did you learn this?"
"Learn it! Don't you know the papers are full of it? Papa read it this
morning at breakfast, and he laughed until he cried. Where is that
Irishman who gets you into so many funny scrapes?"
"He is at the tavern."
"Well, papa says he must see you. He has fought duels in his day, and he
thinks you a splendid shot; but it was naughty of you to fight without
consulting me. He might have killed you."
Fernando was now the happiest man on earth.
"Miss Lane, don't think because I did not consult you, I did not think
of you. You were in my mind as much as any other person at that trying
ordeal, unless it was my mother."
"Oh, don't grow sentimental. Now that it is all over and not much harm
done, let us laugh at it;--but I want to scold you."
"Why?"
"You did not obey me on that night. I told you to drink no more wine,
and after I left, you drank too much, which provoked the quarrel."
Fernando, who really had no clear idea of the subject-matter of the
quarrel, answered:
"I plead guilty, Miss Lane, to being disobedient.
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