? If they drove me from the house?"

"I should fly with you," she said, hiding her head in his breast.

"What if I were to ask you to fly with me now?" he said, gloomily.

"Now!" she repeated, lifting her frightened eyes to his.

His face darkened, with its old look of savage resentment. "Hear me,
Maruja," he said, taking her hands tightly in his own. "When I forgot
myself--when I was mad that day in the conservatory, the only expiation
I could think of was to swear in my inmost soul that I would never take
advantage of your forgiveness, that I would never tempt you to forget
yourself, your friends, your family, for me, an unknown outcast. When
I found you pitied me, and listened to my love--I was too weak to
forego the one ray of sunshine in my wretched life--and, thinking that
I had a prospect before me in an idea I promised to reveal to you
later, I swore never to beguile you or myself in that hope by any act
that might bring you to repent it--or myself to dishonor. But I taxed
myself too much, Maruja. I have asked too much of you. You are right,
darling; this secrecy--this deceit--is unworthy of us! Every hour of
it--blest as it has been to me--every moment--sweet as it is--blackens
the purity of our only defense, makes you false and me a coward! It
must end here--to-day! Maruja, darling, my precious one! God knows
what may be the success of my plans. We have but one chance now. I
must leave here to-day, never to return, or I must take you with me.
Do not start, Maruja--but hear me out. Dare you risk all? Dare you
fly with me now, to-night, to the old Padre at the ruined Mision, and
let him bind us in those bonds that none dare break? We can take
Faquita with us--it is but a few miles--and we can return and throw
ourselves at your mother's feet. She can only drive us forth together.
Or we can fly from this cursed wealth, and all the misery it has
entailed--forever."

She raised her head, and, with her two hands on his shoulders, gazed at
him with her father's searching eyes, as if to read his very soul.

"Are you mad, Harry!--think what you propose! Is this not tempting me?
Think again, dearest," she said, half convulsively, seizing his arm
when her grasp had slipped from his shoulder.

There was a momentary silence as she stood with her eyes fixed almost
wildly on his set face. But a sudden shock against the bolted door and
an inarticulate outcry startled them. With an instinctive movement,