ted to gain heaven by clutching the Madonna in my arms.
Senora, in you I see the priceless jewel of my life, which I shall wear
to dazzle the world, and without which I shall destroy myself. Now let
me tell you what I can offer you, what setting I can build for this
treasure. Marriage with Luis Longorio--"

Alaire could not control a start.

As if quickened by his intensity, the man read her thought. "You did
not imagine that I offered you anything less?"

"What was I to think? Your reputation--"

"Mother of God!" breathed the general. "So! That is what you meant a
moment ago. That is why you refuse my embraces. No, no! Other women
have feared me and I have laughed in their hair as they tore at my
arms, but you--you will be my wife, and all Mexico shall bow at your
feet." He checked her denial with a gesture. "Wait until I tell you the
vision I have seen during these days of my despair. I see Mexico made
whole by my hands; a land of peace and plenty; a people with one name
upon their lips--the name of Longorio the Deliverer; and you as the
first lady of them all. You know me for a man of tremendous ability in
every line. Well, I know myself, too. I have measured myself carefully,
and I have no weakness. There is no other like me. Pancho Gomez? Bah!
He is a red-handed bandit of no culture. Candeleria, his chief? The
idol of the ignorant and a dreamer of no force. Potosi? He is President
today, but what of tomorrow? Those who surround him are weaklings, and
he stumbles toward oblivion. Who will succeed him? Who will issue from
the coming struggle as the dominant figure of Mexico? Who but that
military genius who checks the Yankee hordes and saves the fatherland?
I am he. Fate points the path of glory and I am her man of destiny. You
see, then, what I bring you--power, position, riches. Riches? Caramba!
Wait until my hands are in the treasury. I will load you with gold and
jewels, and I will make you the richest woman in the world. Senora, I
offer you dominion. I offer you the President's palace and Chapultepec.
And with all that I offer you such passionate love as no woman of
history ever possessed."

He paused, spent by the force of his own intensity; it was plain that
he expected an immediate surrender.

Alaire's lips parted in the faintest of mocking smiles. "You have great
confidence in yourself," she said.

"Yes. I know myself as no one knows me."

"Why do you think I care for you?"

Longorio's eyes opened