A Volunteer with Pike / The True Narrative of One Dr. John Robinson and of His Love for the Fair Señorita Vallois

by Robert Ames Bennet

"A man asks only for reasonable opportunities, señorita,—a fair field and no favors."

"The last is easy to grant."

"You mean—?"

"No favors."

She had me hard. I rallied as best I could. "But a fair field—?"

"Can there be such?" she countered. "You are Anglo-American; I am Spanish."

"Vallois has a French sound."

Her chin rose a trifle higher. "It is a name that crowns the most glorious pages in the history of France."

I thought of St. Bartholomew, and smiled grimly. "I, too, can trace back to one ancestor of French blood. He died by command of Charles de Valois. He was a shoemaker and a Huguenot."

She looked at me with a level gaze. "It is evident you are one who does not fear to face the truth. You have yourself named the barrier and the gulf between us."