"You were about to say,"-- "Eh--oh--ah! this Kate Howard?
So! I have heard of her--yees! And Miss Yerba--ah--she is of my country--I think.

Yes--we shall claim her--of a truth--yes." "Your countrymen, I believe, are in the habit of making claims that are more often founded on profit than verity," said Paul, with smileless and insulting deliberation.

He knew perfectly what he was saying, and the result he expected.

Only twenty-four hours before he had smiled at Pendleton's idea of averting scandal and discovery by fighting, yet he was endeavoring to pick a quarrel with a man, merely on suspicion, for the same purpose, and he saw nothing strange in it.

A vague idea, too, that this would irrevocably confirm him in opposition to Yerba's illusions probably determined him.
But Don Caesar, albeit smiling lividly, did not seem inclined to pick up the gauntlet, and Woods interfered hastily.