I will not have Anne about me now--nobody--only you." Had she been drinking champagne at the ball?
Had the lights, the music, the dancing, the perfumes, her own verses gone to her head?
Whatever was the cause, her nerves were certainly very highly strung, and only calmed down when the morning was well advanced, and she had exhausted herself in a thousand fond extravagances.
During the next few days Wilhelm noticed something odd in Pilar's manner which he failed to understand.

She seemed strangely absent and thoughtful, by turns unnaturally silent and feverishly talkative, would sit for hours beside him glancing mysteriously at him from time to time, as if she knew something very wonderful, and were debating in her own mind whether to tell it or keep it to herself.

She blushed if he looked at her inquiringly, and rushed away and locked herself into her boudoir.
He watched these peculiar proceedings patiently for about a week, and then asked one day, not without a secret misgiving: "Pilar, what is the matter with you lately ?" Probably she had only waited for this.

She cast herself upon his breast, drew his head down, and whispered something in his ear.

He straightened himself up with a jerk.
"Are you certain ?" he asked, with an unsteady voice.
"Almost, I think; yes, Wilhelm, it must be so," she stammered, hiding her face on his shoulder.
It was well she did not look at him at that moment.