Senorita Estacardo drew her chair beside the snowy couch and faced her
friend, who did the same regarding her. Reaching out her hand, she
lovingly inclosed that of Miss Starland, just as she used to do in the
dear old days at the Seminary. The American young woman leaned forward
and kissed the dark cheek, and for a minute they sat without speaking.
Then with the black eyes gazing into the blue ones, the owner of the
former said in a voice, scarcely above a whisper:
"Warrenia, I do not understand it."
"And, Manuela, I'm afraid I do."
"Tell me, then."
"Surely you have a suspicion. Why should we mince matters? He has
forgotten his pledge to you and is more resolute than before."
"I fear you are right. The thought has been growing upon me ever since
we left the boat. Need I tell you that you are no more shocked and
grieved than I?"
"No, nothing that mind can conceive will ever throw a shadow upon your
loyalty and goodness. I have known you too long and too well for me to
have room for such an injustice."
The other's answer to this was to throw her arms impulsively around
the neck of her friend and to kiss her again and again, murmuring:
"Thank you and bless you! I can never be the angel that you are and I
would gladly die for you."
There were no tears in the eyes of either; they were too brave for
that. It was the American who spoke when they became more composed:
"We are agreed upon the one thing, and, therefore, must be right. But
you can aid me to clear up several points that trouble me. Why did
General Yozarro put us ashore and send us here?"
"I suspect his reason for that. You know he has spoken of sending us
to the Castle to spend a few days of the hot weather. He had the
preparations made and this room fitted for us. We should have come
here today, but for your change of mind. You demanded to go to
Zalapata and he could not refuse. His plan that you should come to the
Castle was not changed, but he had to seem to defer to your wishes. To
have come directly here would have been a plain disregard of them, so
he spent the day in planning this deception, and carried it out
without the least difficulty."
"Must he not have seen that when we went ashore and found the escort
waiting with ponies, we should see that the whole thing was
pre-arranged? In no other way could it have come about."
"True, but when we understood it all it would be too late to do us any
good."
"What of his story that General Bambos had sent a boat up the river to
attack Atlamalco?"
"It was pure invention."
"We certainly have heard no sounds of a battle between the boats."
"Because there has been none. He saw no more of a hostile fleet than
did we, for none exists; he has gone back to Atlamalco."
"I suppose he will be here tomorrow with some cunning falsehood to
explain why the conflict did not take place. He will say he gave
chase to the enemy, who fled without firing a shot, but how can I
pretend to believe him?"
"There is no call for any such pretense. If he tries further
deception, ask him to make clear how the two soldiers were waiting on
shore with horses. If he makes a reasonable explanation of that, he
has more ingenuity than I ever supposed."
"We can have no trouble in convicting him, but, Manuela, my dread is
that it will not help matters, but rather make them worse. I must
confess that his conduct is beyond my comprehension."
"It is not beyond mine."
"What is your theory?"
"It is not a theory but a fact. My uncle is so hopelessly in love with
you that his ordinary common sense has left him."
"It may be as you say, but much remains that is unaccountable to me."
"I see little that is not made clear by what I have said. You and I
know that when a man becomes as blindly infatuated as he, his conduct
violates reason and the simplest prudence and he does things that
would be absurd in a child. Frightened by the prospect of losing you,
he gave all his thoughts and energies to preventing it. This was the
only method that suggested itself, and we cannot deny, my dear friend,
that it has been quite successful up to this point."
"But of what possible avail can it be to him? Idiot that he is, he
must know that this situation can last but a short time. Jack will
find it out within twenty-four hours, and General Yozarro must know
what will happen _then_."
"Dearest Warrenia, you do not see as much in this as I. What stronger
proof can I give of my love to you than to say that we must separate
and you must leave this part of the world with the least possible
delay? Your own loveliness is your peril. It ought to be your greatest
protection, but it is not. I would that your yacht was in the river
this very hour and that we could make haste to it, for you are in
greater danger than you suspect."