She smiled at him over the edge of her glass. "It seems to me you have been speaking to me for some time. The thoughts are bubbling up which the dance set free, as you said in the garden a while ago. Is it not so?" She laughed.
The Captain signaled a passing peona who removed the emptied goblets.
"Señorita Carmelita, pray take my words seriously. I think of you, and I dream of you. Your image is enshrined in my heart. Before it I do homage. O, Señorita Doña, I offer you the best devotion of a soldier whose greatest hope is to love and to cherish you, and to make you happy. Will you not listen?"
She blushed and her hands trembled slightly.
"Speak to me, Doña. Bid me hope, even ever so little. The endeavor of my life shall be to become worthy of you. Will you not say there is hope for me?"
Intensity blazed in the eyes of the handsome soldier, and gave resonance to his voice. He took the girl's hand. She but half resisted.
The settee which they occupied was partly screened by palms from the rest of the ballroom. A bevy of señoritas, passing through during the intermission, exchanged knowing glances as they came in sight of the two, and went on. The man and woman did not notice them.
"O, Carmelita, will you not answer me when I say I love you? and tell me in return that you love me? Will you not, Carmelita mia?"
She did not try to withdraw her hand. Her eyelids drooped, and the color of the rose swam anew in her cheeks.
"O, Carmelita, beloved of my heart, say you love me," rapturously.