A few cardinal flowers fell like drops of blood before the open windows of the vacant ball-room, in which the step of a solitary servant echoed faintly.

It was Maruja's maid, bringing a note to her young mistress, who, in a flounced morning dress, leaned against the window.

Maruja took it, glanced at it quietly, folded it in a long fold, and put it openly in her belt.
Captain Carroll, from whom it came, might have carried one of his despatches as methodically.

The waiting-woman noticed the act, and was moved to suggest some more exciting confidences.
"The Dona Maruja has, without doubt, noticed the bouquet on her dressing-room table from the Senor Garnier ?" The Dona Maruja had.

The Dona Maruja had also learned with pain that, bribed by Judas-like coin, Faquita had betrayed the secrets of her wardrobe to the extent of furnishing a ribbon from a certain yellow dress to the Senor Buchanan to match with a Chinese fan.