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same welcome if you’d come as ordinary guests. When I first invited you here I had no notion that Dona Inez had had the attack last week. I left her six weeks ago in good health—she didn’t get up for more than a couple of hours each day, but for her age she was in good trim. Now circumstances are altered. A sharp disappointment might cause another attack—who knows?” He waited, but Sally said nothing, so he added in level tones, “Your mother would have to believe the engagement genuine.”
    Sally got nervously to her feet. “You expect a good deal in return for the favor in Barcelona, don’t you? Even if I were willing to deceive my mother, she wouldn’t believe in an engagement between us.”
    He pushed up from his seat and looked at her, quizzically. “You don’t know Viola very well. She was young in the flapper age and she hasn’t grown out of it She’s a little feather-brained, naive and very dependent, and I’m sure that deep down she still believes in fairies. She collapsed after your father’s death because she’s never quite accepted the unpalatable realities of life, and after a while, inevitably, she came to lean on you instead. She doesn’t find it at all difficult to believe in the things that keep life smooth and pleasant. That’s why she was so keen to come to San Palos from the first moment I mentioned it.”
    “You think she’d regard this ... this phoney engagement that way?”
    “I’m pretty sure of it. She’ll think, “How nice—he’s a wee bit old for my Sally, but quite a catch.” And without any mercenary intentions she’ll congratulate herself on having got to know me so well on the ship that she’ll now have an assured home in a good climate. I like Viola—she amuses me and rouses the protective instinct—but you have to admit she’s not deep. You must take after your father.”
    He had got Viola off fairly pat, and as well as one or two other things, it irritated Sally. She began to walk along the path, hoping he would let her go, but he strode lazily at her side without attempting to continue the conversation. She felt him flick something from her hair—a peach-flower petal, perhaps—and the action somehow tightened the little spring that seemed coiled in her chest. There was plenty of sun-warmed air, but she found it difficult to breathe.
    They were quite some way from the house, among scented shrubs and cypress trees, when she said huskily, “It all comes back to Dona Inez, doesn’t it? Some time you’ll have to tell her the truth.”
    “Carlos will decide when, but I’d say she should be strong enough to bear it about a month from the attack.”
    “That’s three weeks from now. And my mother? You know so much about her that no doubt you can tell me exactly how she’ll react to losing the good match as a son-in-law!”
    “Why don’t you relax?” he said mildly. “This thing might almost be fun if you’d get the right slant on it. Before we end the engagement I’ll have Viola established in some business down in Naval Town. She’ll be regretful but understanding. Take my word for it.”
    “And she’ll never know she’s been paid for my part in the deception!”
    He stopped and made her face him. ‘“I won’t have that attitude,” he said roughly. “I had every intention of setting up Viola in some sort of business before this other thing was even in the air, and you know it. It seems to me that you’re letting your fright run away with you. The details of this affair can remain a secret between you and me. We’ll admit Carlos if we have to, but that’s all. Get one thing straight— you’ll emerge the victor, I won’t.”
    “What does that mean?”
    “Just this. The fact of the engagement naturally implies a proposal of marriage from me to you, but its termination will show that you’ve turned me down.” His teeth snapped. “Believe me, that’s not a situation I care for very much!”
    Sally suddenly knew why and it made her