Alpha Book

"Not in the least," he answered, coolly.
"Then why did you act as though you were?" asked Spicca looking him
through and through.
"Do you mean to say that you were watching me all winter?" inquired
Orsino, bending his black eyebrows rather angrily.
"Circumstances made it inevitable that I should know of your visits.
There was a time when you saw her every day."
"I do not know what the circumstances, as you call them, were," answered
Orsino. "But I do not like to be watched--even by my father's old
friends."
"Keep your temper, Orsino," said Spicca quietly. "Quarrelling is always
ridiculous unless somebody is killed, and then it is inconvenient. If
you understood the nature of my acquaintance with Maria Consuelo--with
Madame d'Aranjuez, you would see that while not meaning to spy upon you
in the least, I could not be ignorant of your movements."
"Your acquaintance must be a very close one," observed Orsino, far from
pacified.
"So close that it has justified me in doing very odd things on her
account.


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