“But—I did,” said Cranch, laughing and shaking between the clenching of the little hands.
“Judas Iscariot! Swear you do not love her all this while.”
“But, Juanita!”
“Swear!”
Cranch swore. Then to Father Pedro's intense astonishment she drew the American's face towards her own by the ears and kissed him.
“But you might have loved her, and married a fortune,” said Juanita, after a pause.
“Where would have been my reparation—my duty?” returned Cranch, with a laugh.
“Reparation enough for her to have had you,” said Juanita, with that rapid disloyalty of one loving woman to another in an emergency. This provoked another kiss from Cranch, and then Juanita said demurely,—
“But we are far from the trail. Let us return, or we shall miss Father Pedro. Are you sure he will come?”
“A week ago he promised to be here to see the proofs to-day.”