Tikal turned and went, and, until the gates at the far end of the hall had clashed behind him and his guards, there was silence.
Then Zibalbay spoke to his daughter.
“Girl,” he said, “I know your heart and that your lips spoke a lie, when you told us that it was because of Tikal’s forgetfulness of his vow and troth that you will not marry him. There is another reason of which you have not spoken. This white man, who in his own country is named James Strickland, is the reason. You have suffered yourself to look on him with longing, and you cannot pluck his image from your breast. Do I not speak truth?”
“You speak truth, father,” she answered, placing her hand in that of the señor as she said the words. “To you, at least, I will not lie.”
“I thank you, daughter. Now, hear me; I am sorry for your plight and for that of the white man, if indeed he would make of you anything more than his toy, but here your wishes must give way to the common good. Who and what are you that your whims should stand between me and the fulfilment of my lifelong desire, between your people and their redemption? Must all these things come to nothing because of the fancies of a love-sick girl, whose poor beauty, as it chances by favour of the gods, can avail to bring them about?”
“It seems so, father,” she said, “seeing that in this matter my duty to myself and to him who loves me, and whom I love, is higher than my duty to you and to your scheme. Everything else you, who are my father, may require of me, even to my life, but my honour is my own.”
“What shall I say to this headstrong girl?” gasped Zibalbay. “Speak, White Man, and tell me that you renounce her, for surely your heart is not so wicked that it will lead you to consent to this folly, and to your own undoing to stand between her and her destiny.”
Now all eyes were fixed upon the señor, who turned pale in the lamplight and answered slowly:
“Zibalbay, I grieve to vex you, but your daughter’s destiny and mine are one, nor can I command her to forsake me and give herself in marriage to a man she hates.”
“Yet it seems that you could command her to break her plighted troth for your sake, O most honourable White Man,” said Zibalbay with a bitter laugh. “Hearken, friend Ignatio, for you at least are not in love, tell your brother there and this rebellious girl which way their duty lies. Teach them that we are sent here to dwell upon the earth for higher ends than the satisfying of our own desires. Stay, before you speak, remember that with this matter your own fate is interwoven. Remember how you have suffered and striven for many years, remember all you have undergone to win what to-day lies in your grasp, the wealth that shall enable you to carry out your purposes. There, in those vaults, it lies to your hand, and if that be not enough I will give you more. Take it, Ignatio, take it to bribe your enemies and pay your armies, and become a king, a righteous king, crowned by heaven to complete the destinies of our race. Say such words as shall bend this girl and her lover to our will, and triumph; or fail to say them, and some few days hence meet the end of a thief at the hands of Tikal. Now speak.”