Then, knowing that she was not making herself clearly understood, she asked abruptly, “Robert, do you believe in mental telepathy.”
The lad nodded. “I do indeed,” he said. “Several of us cadets at school tried the thing out and the results were positively uncanny.”
Then with a questioning glance at the dark girl, “Why, Nan, do you believe that you are receiving a telepathic communication?”
“Oh, I really don’t know that I mean anything half as high sounding as all that. But what I do know is this. It doesn’t matter where my thoughts may start, they always wind up with wondering where Manna Lou is. I am continually asking myself a question which I cannot answer.
“Will Manna Lou be remembering that I am now eighteen; indeed almost nineteen, and will she try to locate me that she may keep her long-ago-made promise to my mother?”
The lad looked into the dark eyes that were lifted to his. “Nan dear,” he said very gently, “would you be greatly disappointed if this Manna Lou should find you and if the tale she has to reveal, should prove to be that you are not a gypsy girl at all.” This was very like the question he had asked her in the long ago. Her answer had not changed.
Clearly she looked back at him. “Robert Widdemere,” she said unhesitatingly, “all these years I have believed my mother to be a gypsy, and I have loved her as one. It would be very hard for me to change the picture, O the beautiful, beautiful picture I have in my heart of her!”
The lad, gazing into the glowing face could not resist saying, “Lady Red Bird, it is you who are beautiful.”
But Nan, unlike many other girls, was not confused by so direct a compliment. She replied simply. “I hope I am like my mother.”
The lad could wait no longer to tell the dream which had made his summer bright with hope. “Nan,” he cried, “nearly four years ago we stood on this very rock looking down over the valley and I asked you to let me be your brother-comrade.” Then, taking both of her hands, his voice trembling with earnestness, he continued. “And now, Nan, I have brought you here to this same spot to ask you to be my wife.” Then, as she did not at once reply, Robert hurried on, “I know now that I loved you, even then, but we were too young to understand.”