"Mervan, why do you stay by my side--why not go at once back to your own land? Leave me?"
"Juana!" I exclaimed, deeming that I had mistaken her state, and that, in truth, she was beside herself. Then added, stupidly and in a dazed manner: "Leave you!"
"Ay. Why stay by me? You have heard, know all, whose child--to my eternal shame!--I am. The child of that bloodstained man, Gramont. Ay," she said, again, "he, that other, Morales, spoke true. There is no name in all the Indies remembered with such hate and loathing as his. And I--I--am his child. Go--leave me to die here."
"Juana," I said, "can you hear me, understand what I am saying--going to say to you? Is your brain clear enough to comprehend my words? Speak--answer me."
For reply she turned those eyes on me; beneath the dark dishevelled curls I saw their clear glance--I knew that all I should say would be plain to her.
"Listen to my words," I continued therefore. "Listen--and believe; never doubt more. Juana, I love you with my whole heart and soul--before all and everything else this world holds for me. I love you. I love you. I love you," and as I spoke I bent forward and pressed my lips to her hot burning ones. "And you tell me to leave you, because, forsooth! you are his child. Oh! my sweet, my sweet, if you were the child of one five thousand times worse than he has been, ay! even though Satan claimed you for his own, I would love you till my last breath, would never quit your side. Juana, we are each other's forever now."
"No! No! No!"
"Yes, I say," I cried almost fiercely. "Yes. We are each other's alone. You are mine, mine, mine. I have no other thought, no other hope in all this world but you. If--if--our faith were the same I would send for a priest now who should make us one; there should be no further moment elapse in all the moments of eternity before you were my wife."
I felt the long slim hand tighten on mine for an instant, then release it a moment later; but she said no more for a time. Yet the look on her face was one of happiness extreme. After a while, however, she spoke again.
"The admiral knew," she whispered. "He had found out my secret."