But Blair’s armor, since his return, seemed proof against such thrusts as she could give.

“Won’t play Indian at all, then?” he retorted teasingly.  “But of course not!  How could you when you happen to come from the other side of the house?  However,” he continued whimsically, “there are such things as English roses, you know.  I’ve always loved them, too, even when they were thorny!”

He pulled absently at a fern growing near, while, suddenly, for no particular reason, the color glowed again in the cheeks of the little art teacher.  She smiled, half unwillingly.

“But don’t pull up the wild flowers here,” she warned him, “You’ll have the forester after you!  When did you get back?” she added.  “Where have you been so long?” burned on her lips, but she scorned to ask it.

“About an hour ago,” he replied amiably.  “The boat was late.”

“I was beginning to think you’d given up coming at all.”  She could not keep it back.  “The duke never bothered to, you know.”

But this blow, like the first, failed to reach any vulnerable spot.  Blair did not flinch.

“No, naturally he didn’t!  He was English, and you can’t depend upon the English, I’ve discovered.  But there’s not the slightest reason for linking me up with him.  The princess never ran away now, did she?  And I - " He paused, then without looking at her he began again.

“Seriously, I’m sorry if I seemed to be deserting.  I — well, honestly, I didn’t know what else to do.  You suggested it yourself, you remember!  And I’d promised my father to look after some business for him in Los Angeles while I was out here.  You see, he — our family, have lived in the East for a long time now, but we used to own pretty much all of Los Angeles county some three centuries ago, when the Spanish were here, and - " Again he broke off abruptly.  “Do you want to know about me?” he demanded.

Miss Hastings leaned breathlessly toward him.  Her heart was beating wildly.

“Oh, please!” she begged.

“Perhaps I should have told you at the first,” he began, “or at least after you told me who you were, but — anyway, I didn’t.  I’d never told anyone before and I didn’t much suppose I ever would.  There’s a reason, though, why I’m particularly interested in this legend, too, a reason just as good as you’ve got.  I’m — well, I’m one of Wildenai’s great, great grandsons!”

And then, because she sat quite silent there in the shadows, and motionless except for fingering something white that lay in her lap, he waited uneasily.  Was she angry again, he wondered, or perhaps she was only laughing!

She was the first to break the silence.

“Are you trying to be funny?” Her voice was very cold.

“Not at all,” he answered hotly.  “It must be all of ten generations back or even more, and of course it wasn’t all Spanish afterward, but, just the same, I’m as much a descendant of the princess as you are of the duke, — always have been!  I’m just as proud of it, too.  Possibly you will remember that the Spanish beat the English to it, at least in California.  Anyway,” he finished bitterly, “what difference does it make?  So far as I can see, it only gives us one more good subject to quarrel about!”