Just ahead of them was a native hut with large palm trees silhouetted in the background against the pale, evening tropical sky. The moon, peeking over the tree tops, reflected the dark figures of several men and women seated on the porch of the little house, singing the alluring love melodies of far-away Spain to the accompaniment of indolent, strumming guitars.
The boy and girl paused just before an ancient well, built centuries ago by the Spanish Inquisitors. Elinor gazed up at the unhappy Marine whose face bore a pathetic expression of inquietude.
“Why the sudden outburst of remorse?” she asked in the same piqued manner as her original approach.
“I’m not remorseful or—well, I only meant to explain that I wouldn’t have bothered you to-night if I didn’t have something important to ask you!”
Elinor’s heart almost stopped beating at the welcome sound of his words that held so much promise. He could mean but one thing, she was certain, and at the mere thought of an impending proposal of marriage from this man, she looked up at him with suppressed eagerness and anticipation, half whispering: “Yes, Lefty, what is it?”
“I hardly know how to begin,” he faltered, “and I hope that you will take what I am going to say in the right way.”
“Of course!”
Throwing discretion and self-pride to the winds, he gazed at her with wild, piercing eyes, a look that quickened the beating of her heart and thrilled her to the very tips of her fingers.
“I want to tell you,” he continued in a hurried, reckless fashion, anxious to get his task done, “I want to tell you that somebody loves you, somebody thinks you are the most adorable girl in all the world. You’re on his mind every waking hour of the day and when sleep envelops him at night, his dreams are only of you! You are all that he thinks of, talks about and lives for. No matter where we go, what dangerous perils face us, all I hear from him is Elinor this and Elinor that. She’s beautiful, wonderful, sweet and——”
“Lefty!” Elinor interrupted, rudely awakened with astonishment at the knowledge that his proposal of marriage was merely the delivery of a message for someone else.