He himself recrossed the room and went out by the other way into the broad corridor.

He meant to wait there.

His orders had been carried out so quickly that Mendoza found himself alone with Dolores, almost as by a surprise.

In his desperate mood he resented what Ruy Gomez had done, as an interference in his family affairs, and he bent his bushy brows together as he stood facing Dolores, with folded arms.

Four hours had not passed since they had last spoken together alone in his own dwelling; there was a lifetime of tragedy between that moment and this.
Dolores had not spoken since he had pushed her away.