Taught, by long experience, to expect from her always the unexpected, he had set the wild flight down as one of her customary pranks. “Little Wicked One!” he called, coming up. “Have a care for my happiness if not for your neck!” But when, in place of the shy confusion of a newly engaged girl, she turned on him a face of cold distress, the glow faded from his own. “Why, queridita? What—”
“I want you to leave me now.” She cut him abruptly off.
His big eyes widened. “After raising me to heaven would you plunge me in—”
“Ah no, no!” She impulsively thrust out her hand. “You have earned far more happiness than I shall ever be able to give. But—”
“Si? But—”
She gave him a little wan smile. “When you come to understand girls better, you will never demand a reason. Men always know why they do a thing, but girls act from feeling; most of the time without knowing the cause.”
“But—”
“Ramon,” she looked at him with sweet severity, “if I had told you on top of the mountain what I said back there—wouldn’t you have been content?”
“Assuredly! It was only—”
“Yes, yes! Now listen. I want you to go, now—and stay till I either send or come. It won’t be long—I promise.”