"You are here!" I repeated. "Tell me. How did you come? I sailed for Vera Cruz, but they took me by force from the sloop."
I paused, as suddenly my two memories brought together the sloop Siren and the sloop which had sunk my lady's ship.
"Lafitte!" I exclaimed.
"Lafitte?" she asked, bewildered.
"All's well that ends well!" I cried. "After all, he brought us together."
"Who, Juan?"
"Jean Lafitte, the man who was to have landed me in Vera Cruz."
"Ah, Vera Cruz—Santa Maria! that terrible city! People were dying by scores of the yellow fever. We lingered as long as we dared. But you did not come. The padre said you could not have read my message aright. We at last took ship for Western Florida. There was none sailing for New Orleans."
"You were coming to me! But the veil—the nun's veil?"
"It is gone—see!" She put her free hand to the silky mass of her dusky hair. "God forgive me, Juan! It was for your sake, and with the assent of the padre, that I took the novitiate vows."