Along with his amusement over the child's naïve suggestion Lennon was conscious of an odd thrill. He remembered the look in Carmena's dark eyes when she saved him from the poison of the Gila monster and at the end of their desperate flight across the Basin. They had risked death together—and she was not a child.
But close upon these pleasantly disquieting remembrances of the older girl came the harsh afterthought of his suspicions against her. He bent to kiss Elsie with almost aggressive fervour.
From the doorway behind him came a stifled cry that might have been a sob. He held fast to Elsie and glanced over his shoulder. Carmena was standing in the doorway, with her head bent. As Lennon looked, she straightened and came toward him, cold-eyed and determined.
"What are you doing, Jack Lennon?" she demanded. "I trusted you. I believed that you were not the kind to take advantage of Blossom. I thought you——"
Elsie struggled free from Lennon to fling her arms about her foster-sister.
"Oh, Mena, please, please don't be cross with Jack! I love him so, and—and he loves me back!"
Lennon met Carmena's hard stare with a gaze no less cool and resolute.
"Elsie is to be my wife," he declared. "I shall marry her as soon as possible."
"Your wife? Marry her? You mean that?"
"Yes."