With a rush the impulsive girl, forgetting all but the apparent success of her mission, threw herself upon him and clasped her arms about his neck. “Oh,” she cried, “it is love that has done all this! And it has won you!”
The startled man strained the girl tightly in his arms. He could feel the quick throbbing in her throat. Her warm breath played upon his cheek like fitful tropic breezes. For a brief moment the supreme gift of the universe seemed to be laid at his feet. For a fleeting interval the man of dust faded, and a new being, pure and white, seemed to rise within him.
“Yes,” he murmured gently, “we’ll take him to our home with us.”
Slowly, very slowly, the girl released herself from his embrace and stepped back. “With––us?” she murmured, searching his face for the meaning which she had dimly discerned in his words.
“Yes––listen!” He reached forward and with a quick movement seized her hand. “Listen, little girl. I want you––I want you! Not now––no, you needn’t come to me until you are ready. But say that you will come! Say that! Why, I didn’t know until to-day what it was that was making me over! It’s you! Don’t go! Don’t––”
Carmen had struggled away from him, and, with a look of bewilderment upon her face, was moving toward the door. “Oh, I didn’t know,” she murmured, “that you were––were––proposing marriage to me!”
“Don’t you understand?” he pursued. “We’ll just make all things new! We’ll begin all over again, you and I! Why, I’ll do anything––anything in the world you say, Carmen, if you will come to me––if you will be my little wife!
“I know––I know,” he hastily resumed, as she halted and stood seemingly rooted to the floor, “there is a great difference in our ages. But that is nothing––many happy marriages are made between ages just as far apart as ours. Think––think what it means to you! I’ll make you a queen! I’ll surround you with limitless wealth! I’ll make you leader of society! I’ll make Madam Beaubien rich! I’ll support the Express, and make it what you want it to be! I’ll do whatever you say for the people of Avon! Think, little girl, what depends now upon you!”
Carmen turned and came slowly back to him. “And––you will not do these things––unless I marry you?” she said in a voice scarcely above a whisper.