"Dona Orosia," I said, when I had done it to her liking. "If all you care for, in this other matter, is to get rid of my white face, I pray you kill me with your dagger and ask your lord to let my love go free."

She looked up curiously. "Would you die for him?" she asked.

"Most willingly, an it please you to make my death his ransom."

Still she gazed at me and seemed strangely stirred. "Once I loved like that," she said in musing tones. "I will tell thee a tale, child, for I like not the reproach in those blue eyes. Five years ago, when I was as young as thou art now, I lived with my parents in Valencia, where the flowers are even sweeter and the skies bluer than here in sunny Florida.

I had a lover in those days, who followed me like my shadow, and, in spite of my old duenna, found many a moment to pour his pa.s.sion in my ears. He was a brave man and a handsome, and he won my heart from me.

Though he had no great fortune I would have wed him willingly and followed him over land and sea. I never doubted him for a day; and when he came to my father's house with an old n.o.bleman, his uncle and the head of his family, I was well content; for my mother told me they had asked for my hand and it had been promised. But when my father called me in at last to see my future husband, it was the old man who met me with a simper on his wrinkled face. I turned to the nephew; but he was gazing out of the window----"

She broke off with a fierce laugh and then added bitterly,--"And so I came to marry my husband, the Governor of San Augustin!"

"The other was Don Pedro?"

"Has thy baby wit compa.s.sed that much? Yes, the other was Melinza."

"But if you once loved him why should there be hate between you now?"

"Why? thou little fool! Why?"--she put out one hand and drew me closer, so that she could look deep into my eyes. "Why does a woman ever hate a man? Canst tell me that?"

We gazed at each other so until I saw--I scarce know what I saw! My head swam, and of a sudden it came over me that when the angels fell from heaven there must have been an awful beauty in their eyes!

CHAPTER XV.

I awoke this morning with a sense of horror haunting me,--and then I recalled the scene of yesterday and the dumb appeal in the eyes of the dying hound. The story the Spanish woman had told me of her own past pleaded nothing in excuse. Hatred and cruelty seemed strange fruit for love to bear.

I thought of my own ill fortunes, and I said within me: True Love sits at the door of the heart to guard it from all evil pa.s.sions. Loss and Pain may enter in, and Sorrow bear them company; but Revenge and Cruelty, Untruth, and all their evil kin, must hide their shamed faces and pa.s.s by!

Secure in the thought of the pure affection that reigned in my own bosom, I went forth and met Temptation, and straightway fell from the high path in which I believed my feet to be so surely fixed!

Dona Orosia seemed to be in a strangely gentle mood.

"Child, how pale thy face is! Didst thou not lie awake all night? Deny it not, 'tis writ most plainly in the dark shadows round those great blue eyes. Come, rest here beside me"--and she drew me down upon the couch and slipped a soft pillow under my head.

I was fairly dumfounded at this unwonted courtesy, and could find no words to meet it with. But she appeared unconscious of my silence and continued speaking.

"'Tis the thought of the English lover that robs thee of sleep, Margarita mia! Thou wouldst give thy very life to procure his freedom; is it not so? Would any task be too hard for thee with this end in view?"

I could not answer; I clasped my hands and looked at her in silence.

"I thought as much," she said, smiling, and laid a gentle finger on my cheek.

"Oh, senora, you will aid me to save him! You will plead with the Governor--you will set him free?"

She drew back coldly. "You ask too much. I have told you that there are two Governors in San Augustin--I divide the honours with Melinza; but I plead with him for naught."

I turned away to hide the quivering of my lip.

"Listen to me," she added more kindly. "Between Pedro Melinza and Orosia de Colis there is at present an armed peace; since each holds a hostage. Not that I care anything for the Englishman, but my husband is undesirous of defying the commands of the Council. Although he bears no love to your nation, he maintains that it is not the policy of our government, at present, to ignore openly the friendly relations that are supposed to exist between the Crowns of England and of Spain. It seems that the duplicate of the Council's orders has been sent to the Governor of your new settlement on this coast; and if he sends. .h.i.ther to demand the delivery of the prisoners, Senor de Colis would rather choose to yield up all, than to risk a reprimand from the authorities at home.

"Dost thou understand all this? Well, let us now see the reverse of the picture.

"Melinza sets his own desires in the scale, and they outweigh all politic scruples. He has sworn that so long as I stand between him and you, so long will Senor Rivers remain in the castle dungeon,--unless Death steps kindly in to set your lover free."

A little sob broke in my throat at these cruel words. Dona Orosia laid her hand on mine.

"Poor little one!" she said.

"You pity me, senora! What is your pity worth?" I demanded, forcing back the tears.

"I have a way of escape to offer," she answered softly.

"Escape for him? Or for me?"

"For both. Now listen! There is but one way to relax Melinza's hold on Senor Rivers. He would exchange him willingly for you."

"Better for us both to die!" I exclaimed indignantly.

"I would sooner kill you with my own hands than give you up to him,"

said Dona Orosia, with a cold smile.

"Then what do you mean, senora?"

"I mean, Margarita mia, that you should feign a tenderness for him and let him think that it is I who would keep two loving souls apart."

"What! when I have shown him naught but dislike in all these months? He could never be so witless as to believe in such a sudden transformation."

"Such is the vanity of man," said Dona Orosia, "that he would find it easier to believe that you had feigned hatred all this while from fear of me, than to doubt that you had eventually fallen a victim to his fascinations."

"What would it advantage me if I did deceive him?"

"He would then cease to oppose the liberation of all the other prisoners."

"But what of my fate, senora?"

"Leave that in my hands, little one,--I am not powerless. I give thee my word he shall never have thee. At the last moment we shall undeceive him"--and she laughed a low laugh of triumph.

I glanced up quickly.

"So!" I exclaimed. "This will be your revenge! And you would bribe me, with my dear love's freedom, to act a part in it! To lie for you; to play at love where I feel only loathing; to sully my lips with feigned caresses; and to make a mockery of the holiest thing in life!"

"Is your Englishman not worth some sacrifice?" she asked, with lifted brows.

What could I say? I left her. I hastened to my little room, shut fast the door, and bolted it on the inner side. Then I knelt at the barred window and looked out at the sunlight and the sea.

The blue waves danced happily, and the fresh wind kissed the sparkling ripples till the foam curled over them--as white lids droop coyly over laughing eyes. Two snowy gulls dipped and soared, flashing now against the blue sky--now into the blue sea. I gazed at their white wings--and thought of all the vain prayers I had sent up to Heaven.