hen my father sighed and said that it should be as I willed. And
I said with the priests, that now in our sore distress the proud must
humble themselves to the dust, even to the marrying of a captive slave
who is named a god and doomed to sacrifice. So I, princess of the
Otomie, have consented to become your wife, O Tezcat, though perchance
had I known all that I read in your eyes this hour, I should not have
consented. It may happen that in this shame I hoped to find love if
only for one short hour, and that I purposed to vary the custom of our
people, and to complete my marriage by the side of the victim on the
altar, as, if I will, I have the right to do. But I see well that I am
not welcome, and though it is too late to go back upon my word, have
no fear. There are others, and I shall not trouble you. I have given my
message, is it your pleasure that I should go? The solemn ceremony of
wedlock will be on the twelfth day from now, O Tezcat.'

Now I rose from my seat and took her hand, saying:

'I thank you, Otomie, for your nobleness of mind. Had it not been for
the comfort and friendship which you and Guatemoc your cousin have given
me, I think that ere now I should be dead. So you desire to comfort me
to the last; it seems that you even purposed to die with me. How am I
to interpret this, Otomie? In our land a woman would need to love a
man after no common fashion before she consented to share such a bed as
awaits me on yonder pyramid. And yet I may scarcely think that you whom
kings have sued for can place your heart so low. How am I to read the
writing of your words, princess of the Otomie?'

'Read it with your heart,' she whispered low, and I felt her hand
tremble in my own.

I looked at her beauty, it was great; I thought of her devotion, a
devotion that did not shrink from the most horrible of deaths, and a
wind of feeling which was akin to love swept through my soul. But even
as I looked and thought, I remembered the English garden and the English
maid from whom I had parted beneath the beech at Ditchingham, and the
words that we had spoken then. Doubtless she still lived and was true to
me; while I lived should I not keep true at heart to her? If I must wed
these Indian girls, I must wed them, but if once I told Otomie that I
loved her, then I broke my troth, and with nothing less would she be
satisfied. As yet, though I was deeply moved and the temptation was
great, I had not come to this.

'Be seated,