‘Then you will never marry any one else, Maraquita, for you shall not be coerced into it whilst I live. But I don’t feel sure of you yet. Will you promise me, if the Governor’s suit is pressed more closely upon you, to save yourself by flying with me?’
‘I will!—on one condition, Henri.’
‘What is it?’
‘That you will shelter me from the shame you have brought upon me. I dare not do anything in the matter, but you are cleverer than I am, and may manage it without detection. Only get it—you know what I mean—sent away from San Diego, or devise some plan by which it can never be brought in judgment against me, and I—I—will do anything you ask me.’
‘You give me your solemn word to that effect?’
‘My solemn word, Henri,’ she answered, with downcast eyes.
‘Then it shall be done—if I have to steal it away with my own hands. But after we are married, surely then, Maraquita—’ he said wistfully.
‘Oh, don’t talk of that now!’ cried the girl hurriedly. ‘It will be time enough to discuss what we shall do, when the time arrives. But I must go now, Henri, or Jessica may miss me. Perhaps you will come up and see me to-morrow.’
‘I will come up, without fail, whether they let me see you or not. One kiss, my darling. Remember that I look upon you as my wife, and no one shall wrest you from me.’
‘No one—no one!’ she answered feverishly, as she returned his passionate kisses, and almost wished she had the courage to be true to him. Yet as she crept back to her home through the shadowy, moonlit paths—for she would not let De Courcelles accompany her, for fear of being intercepted—she knew she had been lying, and had no more intention of marrying him than before. She had used his entreaties as a means to her own end, and if that were accomplished, she would have no hesitation in breaking the promise she had given him. She could always fall back—so she thought—on the duty which she owed her parents, and if the great misfortune of being found out befell her, and the wrath of her father and mother proved too hard to bear, why, Henri de Courcelles was ready and eager to marry her.