“Oh, yes––lots!” she said quickly.
The woman regarded her with curiosity. “Tell me something about your life,” she said. “They say you are a princess.”
“Surely I am a princess,” returned Carmen, laughing merrily. “Listen; I will tell you about big, glorious Simití, and the wonderful castle I lived in there, and about my Prime Minister, Don Rosendo, and––well, listen, and then judge for yourself if I am not of royal extraction!”
Laughing again up into the mystified face of Miss Wall, the enthusiastic girl began to tell about her former life in far-off Guamocó.
As she listened, the woman’s eyes grew wide with interest. At times she voiced her astonishment in sudden exclamations. And when the girl concluded her brief recital, she bent upon the sparkling face a look of mingled wonder and admiration. “Goodness! After going through all that, how can you be so happy now? And with all your kin down there in that awful war! Why––!”
“Don’t you think I am a princess now?” Carmen asked, smiling up at her.
“I think you are a marvel!” was the emphatic answer.
“And––you don’t want to know what it was that kept me through it all, and that is still guiding me?” The bright, animated face looked so eagerly, so lovingly, into the world-scarred features of her companion.
“Not if you are going to talk religion. Tell me, who is this priest you are seeking to-day, and why have you come to see him?”
“Father Waite. He is the one who found me––when I got lost––and took me to my friends.”