"So you like him too much to stand in his way," he said, meditatively. "How does your father look at it?"
"He wants the Lieutenant to marry me. He says he will fix it up all right; but he doesn't understand. How could he?"
"You are doing just right," concurred the man, hypocritically, "and you'll live to be glad you stood out." Now that both his enemies desired this thing, he was set on preventing it, regardless of the girl. "How did the Lieutenant take it when you refused him?"
"He wouldn't take it at all. He only laughed and declared he would marry me, anyhow." The very thought thrilled her.
"Does he knew you love him?"
The tender, sobbing laugh she gave was ample answer.
"Well, what's your plan?"
"I—I—I don't know. I am so torn and twisted with it all that I can't plan, but I have thought I—ought—to go—away."
"Good!" he said, quickly, but his acquiescence, instead of soothing her, had the contrary effect, and she burst out impulsively:
"Oh—I can't—I can't! I can't go away and never see him! I can't do it! I want to stay where he is!" She had been holding herself in stubbornly, but at last gave way with reckless abandon. "Why wasn't I born white like other girls? I've never felt like an Indian. I've always dreamed and fancied I was different, and I am, in my soul—I know I am! The white is so strong in me that it has killed the red, and I'm one of father's people. I'm not like the other two; they are brown and silent, and as cold as little toads; but I'm white and full of life, all over. They never see the men and women that I see in my dreams. They never have my visions of the beautiful snow-white mother, with the tender mouth and the sad eyes that always smile at me."