The Mark of Zorro by JOHNSTON MCCULLEY Read Free Book Online Page A

listening and so knew what had happened—and endeavoring to placate the embarrassed Don Diego Vega. Though there was consternation in his heart, he contrived to chuckle and make light of the occurrence.
    â€œWomen are fitful and filled with fancies, señor ,” he said. “At times they will rail at those whom they in reality adore. There is no telling the workings of a woman’s mind—she cannot explain it with satisfaction herself.”
    â€œBut I—I scarcely understand,” Don Diego gasped. “I used my words with care. Surely I said nothing to insult or anger the señorita! ”
    â€œShe would be wooed, I take it, in the regular fashion. Do not despair, señor . Both her mother and myself have agreed that you are a proper man for her husband. It is customary that a maid fight off a man to a certain extent, and then surrender. It appears to make the surrender the sweeter. Perhaps the next time you visit us she will be more agreeable. I feel quite sure of it!”
    So Don Diego shook hands with Don Carlos Pulido and mounted his horse and rode slowly down the trail; and Don Carlos turned about and entered his house again and faced his wife and daughter, standing before the latter with his hands on his hips and regarding her with something akin to sorrow.
    â€œHe is the greatest catch in all the country!” Doña Catalina was wailing, and she dabbed at her eyes with a delicate square of filmy lace.
    â€œHe has wealth and position and could mend my broken fortunes if he were but my son-in-law,” Don Carlos declared, not taking his eyes from his daughter’s face.
    â€œHe has a magnificent house, and a hacienda besides, and the best horses near Reina de Los Angeles, and he is sole heir to his wealthy father,” Doña Catalina said.
    â€œOne whisper from his lips into the ear of his excellency, the governor, and a man is made—or unmade,” added Don Carlos.
    â€œHe is handsome—”
    â€œI grant you that!” exclaimed the Señorita Lolita, lifting her pretty head and glaring at them bravely. “That is what angers me! What a lover the man could be, if he would! Is it anything to make a girl proud to have it said that the man she married never looked at another woman, and so did not select her after dancing and talking and playing at love with others?”
    â€œHe preferred you to all others, else he would not have ridden out to-day,” Don Carlos said.
    â€œCertainly it must have fatigued him!” the girl said. “Why does he let himself be made the laughingstock of the country? He is handsome and rich and talented. He has health, and could lead all the other young men. Yet he has scarcely enough energy to dress himself, I doubt not.”
    â€œThis is all beyond me!” the Doña Catalina wailed. “When I was a girl, there was nothing like this! An honorable man comes seeking you as wife—”
    â€œWere he less honorable and more of a man, I might look at him a second time,” said the señorita .
    â€œYou must look at him more than a second time,” put in Don Carlos, with some authority in his manner. “You cannot throw away such a fine chance. Think on it, my daughter! Be in a more amiable mood when Don Diego calls again.”
    Then he hurried to the patio on pretense that he wished to speak to a servant, but in reality to get away from the scene. Don Carlos had proved himself to be a courageous man in his youth, and now he was a wise man also, and hence he knew better than to participate in an argument between women.
    Soon the siesta hour was at hand, and the Señorita Lolita went into the patio and settled herself on a little bench near the fountain. Her father was dozing on the veranda, and her mother in her room, and the servants were scattered over the place, sleeping also. But Señorita Lolita could not sleep, for her mind was busy.
    She knew her father’s circumstances, of