HOW HARRY AND KATIE DISCUSS THE SITUATION, AND ASHBY TELLS DOLORES HER
DUTY.
The sudden appearance of Russell broke the spell which had rested upon
all.
Talbot was the first to make a movement.
"Excuse me for a few moments," said she. "There are some wounded men
inside who are in my care. I came out to get some water for them. I must
make haste."
Saying these words, she left Harry, and went to a corner of the apartment
where there was a jar of water. Filling a vessel from this, she returned
to the wounded.
Harry did not follow her.
Upon seeing this movement of Talbot, Katie withdrew from Ashby. Ashby did
not seem to notice this, for he was still watching Dolores.
Dolores now remarked to Brooke that she was just at that time engaged in
looking after the defences of the castle, for there was serious danger of
an immediate attack by the enemy.
At this Brooke said nothing, but merely bowed, and followed Talbot to help
her with the wounded men.
Dolores, upon this, cast a glance at Ashby and went out. Ashby immediately
followed her.
Upon this, Harry approached Katie. Neither said a word, but, acting on one
common impulse, they went upstairs together into the upper hall. As they
thus went up, Russell came out of the other room, and, seeing them
ascending the stairs, he followed them.
On reaching the top of the stairs, Harry and Katie stood, and Russell also
stopped a little below. He wasn't proud. He was anxious for information.
So he stood and listened to what they had to say.
The two stood there in silence for some time, until at length Katie spoke.
"Isn't this horrible?" said she, with a heavy sigh.
Harry gave another sigh responsive to hers.
"It's worse," said Katie, "than ever."
Harry, with another sigh, allowed that it was.
"I can't stay here," said Katie, "in this place, and, what's more, I won't
stay. I'm free now, and I've made up my mind to go away."
"Will you?" said Harry, in an eager voice.
"Yes, I will," said Katie, decidedly; "and I'll go all alone. You needn't
come; for of course you'll stay."
"Stay?" said Harry--"stay? and here--when you've gone away?"
"Oh yes," said Katie, "of course you'll stay here with your dear Sydney!"
Harry sighed.
"But _I_ won't stay," continued Katie, after another pause; "I'm going to
leave; and I'll walk back to the railway all alone."
"I think that would be a capital idea!" said Harry, in a tone of great
animation.
At this Katie burst into tears.
Harry was now quite distracted. He caught her in his arms and kissed her
over and over again.
"You don't understand," said he. "I mean it would be a good idea to go;
but, of course, you shall not go alone."
"Yes, I will go alone," said Katie, "all alone. You don't care for me, now
that you've got your Sydney. You don't care for me a bit!"
"Care for you!" cried Harry; "you're the only one, Katie, in all the world
that I do care for."
Katie struggled away from his encircling arms.
"No," said she, "you're not speaking the truth. You'll leave me, and say
those same words to your Sydney."
"Bother Sydney!" cried Harry, in unfeigned vexation.
At this Katie, whose head had been for a moment averted, now turned her
tearful eyes on him, and Harry once more took her in his arms.
"But do you, after all," said she--"do you, after all, care for me just a
little bit, Harry?"
"Care for you?" cried Harry, with headlong impetuosity. "I swear, Katie,
that I love you better than all the world. I will give up everything for
you. Will you do as much for me?"
"Why--why--how can I help it?" said Katie.
At this reply Harry kissed her again.
"You--you--offered your life for me," said Katie, in tearful agitation,
"and didn't I almost give my life for you, you dear old boy? You don't
know all yet. You don't know that it was for your sake only, and to save
you from death, that I consented to sacrifice myself to that awful man."
Katie now told Harry the whole story, and the effect of this narration was
only to intensify the ardent love of this volatile youth. While he had
been face to face with Talbot, he had undergone a severe struggle from
conflicting emotions and impulses. But, now Katie was before him, Talbot
was present no longer; and Katie was so sweet, so tender, so trustful,
and, above all, she had such a story to tell, that he could not resist.
Talbot's claims on him became less and less perceptible in those new ones
which Katie presented; and so the consequence was that he yielded up
everything--his honor, his loyalty, and his duty.
"Katie," said he, as he pressed her in his arms, "I love you alone--I'll
give up all for you. Let us fly from this place; let us fly. Let us not
wait here where these other people are."
"Fly?" said Katie; "where?"
"Yes, fly!"
"But how can we get out? Shall we go out boldly through the gate?"
Suddenly some one came between them, and a voice chimed into the
conversation.
"Yes," said the voice, "fly! That's the ticket. There's a devil here--a
she-devil. I'll show you the way out. If you want to get off without Ashby
seeing you, I'll show you how; I know the way. It's a secret passage.
That's how I escaped the last time; and I'll take you to it when it gets
dark."
It was Russell who had thus interposed. Harry and Katie showed no
resentment whatever at his intrusion, but caught at his suggestion.
Russell alluded with clumsy and rather vulgar playfulness to their tender
relations, and offered, as guardian, to give Katie away the moment they
should find a parson.
Meanwhile Dolores had gone out into the court-yard, followed by Ashby.
There they stopped, and looked at one another in silence.
"Who's that fellow?" said Ashby at last.
Dolores explained that he was a friend of hers who had been of great help
in Cuba. She did not tell how tender their relations had been.
"H'm!" said Ashby. "Never heard of him before. You seemed very intimate."
"He saved my life," said Dolores.
"Saved your life?"
Dolores sighed.
Then more of her story escaped her. At last the whole truth came out.
"What!" said Ashby; "and so you were engaged. In fact, the fellow is an
old lover."
Dolores said nothing, but looked at Ashby with mournful inquiry, as though
appealing to him to know what she ought to do.
"How did he get here?" asked Ashby, calmly.
"He has been seeking for me all these years, and traced me here, and was
captured."
"H'm! that's devotion," said Ashby. "And who's his friend--the girl that
was disguised as priest?"
"I don't know."
"So she's a girl," said Ashby; "and so that's the reason she wouldn't
marry Lopez and Katie. A most infernally pretty girl. Who is she, did you
say?"
"I don't know."
"Didn't your--your friend tell you?"
"No."
It may be supposed that Ashby should have known Brooke's feelings toward
this "priest" by his devotion to her in saving her life. But it was not
so. Brooke's desperate act in flinging himself before Lopez seemed to
Ashby merely an accident consequent upon his struggle with his captors.
Besides, the attack of Dolores and her six Carlists had followed so
closely upon this, that all had become confused together.
While Ashby had been asking these few questions, Dolores remained looking
at him with that same mournful inquiry. Ashby noticed it, for he looked at
her several times, though each time he looked away elsewhere. He was
turning over all this in his mind.
At length he looked at her once more, and took her hands in his.
"Dolores," said be, "I have made up my mind."
"What?" said she, in a faint voice, looking up at him in awful suspense.
"I will not give you up! That's decided. You must dismiss the idea from
your mind."
In an instant the shadow of anxiety fled from the face of Dolores,
followed by a flash of joy like a sunbeam. She said not a word, but Ashby
saw that rush of happiness, and all his own nature responded.
"You must come with me," said he. "That fellow may look out for himself."
"But--but--" said Dolores. She paused.
"What?"
"We--we--are--engaged."
"Pooh!" said Ashby. "That's an old story."
"But--but--"
"Well?" said Ashby, impatiently, as she paused.
"He--he--saved my life once."
"He be hanged!" said Ashby. "I'll save your life fifty times. You mustn't
think of that man again. Do you hear, Dolores?"
"Yes," said Dolores, meekly; "but I only want to satisfy my conscience,
and find out my duty."
"Conscience? Duty? Ah!" repeated Ashby. "Well, then, I'll tell you what to
think of--think of me! Here was I, engaged to that English maiden. You
have won my love. You have made me indifferent to her. You have made my
love grow stronger and stronger every moment, until now I'm ready to give
up everything for you. Your duty, therefore, is to be true to me, as I
will be true to you."
Dolores looked up again with her face in a rapture of gladness, and Ashby
pressed her hands more closely in his. Then they walked away to inspect
the fortifications.