"Bravo! The exceptions are always of interest. Don Keith is forever a reproach to the rest of us; he has no vices."
"Or conceals them better!" put in Rafael, with a touch of malice.
"You are to be unmasked, señor," murmured Dolores, with lenient eyes.
Bryton glanced at his watch and then with impatience at his sister-in-law.
"I have not the slightest idea of the lady's meaning," he said, coldly; "and if you want to make an early start for the hot springs--"
Mrs. Bryton shut her teeth together with a little click, at his palpable ignoring of herself.
"Oh--short memory of man!" she said, chidingly; "He has forgotten in a year!"
"A year?" Bryton stared at her with a puzzled frown, and a slight motion of his hand toward the door. That, with its little suggestion of authority, decided her.
"I shall tell it," she announced. "How many of you believe in love at first sight?"
"All of us, after meeting you!" declared Rafael, with an exaggerated bow.
"My husband, you know, is an engineer, and goes on long journeys into queer corners of the mining world."
"Bad habit for husbands with pretty wives," remarked Don Antonio.
"Last Winter," continued she, slowly sipping her coffee and watching Bryton; "last Winter he went to Mexico."
"Pardon! We do not ask for the love affairs of your lucky husband, but--"
"But last Winter Don Keith went along; yes--he went along to look up some mining property in the Indian hills, and when he came back--Have any of you noticed the peculiar ring Mr. Bryton wears?"
"Angela!" said Keith, sharply; but she looked at him with smiling insolence.
"Oh, I know your little romance of Doña Espiritu; Teddy told me."
"Damn Teddy!" he remarked, while the rest shouted with laughter at the color flaming in his face.
"Doña Espiritu!" repeated Don Ricardo. "The lady of the Spirit--let us hope it was a good spirit, Don Keith--and that she was kind!"
"To her health!" cried Rafael. "Pour brandy, Fernando; we drink our last toast of this meeting to the love of Don Keith--to the Doña Espiritu!"
"I would rather see the ring than drink the toast," said Dolores. "May I, señor?"
"There is nothing remarkable about it, except that it is very, very old," and he held out his hand for her inspection. "An onyx engraved with the Aztec eagle--now the Mexican eagle."