He could not help a thrill of admiration. She was battling against all men and women to change the destinies of two continents.
“W’y, I take it back then,” he said.
She stared at him in wonder, and drew farther away. It was his tone, altered as she could never have thought possible, nor had she known that aught on earth might hurt her so. She heard a decent man addressing some unavoidable word to a strumpet. All vestige of respect was gone, gone unconsciously, except that respect for himself which would not allow that the word be coarse or an insult. She looked in vain, too, for a trace of anger. Once she had sought to kill him, but that had not changed his big heart. While now! How much–oh, how much easier–was that other sacrifice of hers than this!
“Perhaps, sir,” she found the strength to say, “perhaps I have even, in my humble opinion, favored the acceptance 265of your offer. But His Majesty knows far better than I under what conditions he might accept.”
Driscoll turned to Maximilian direct. “Name them.”
“There is but one. We cannot give refuge to the enemies of the United States––”
“The conditions?”
“Therefore, to avoid complications, your men must lay down their arms on entering Mexico. Then we would deliver the arms to the United States on their recognizing Our Empire––”
“Trade us off, you mean?”
“Or, in case the United States still held aloof, then, as citizens of Mexico, you could take up your arms again.”