A Volunteer with Pike Part 6

"Senorita!" I murmured, "you leave?"

"Within the week."

"So soon! You go by water. Would that I were a sailor in the West Indian trade!"

She gave me a curious glance. "Why in the West Indian trade?"

"Ships carry pa.s.sengers. Aboard even the greatest of ships the sailors have glimpses of the pa.s.sengers."

"Sometimes pa.s.sengers stay below, in the cabin," she said coldly.

"That may well be in times of storm," I replied. "Then the sailor is above, striving to save those who are in his care from shipwreck. But in the warm waters of the Gulf the pa.s.sengers show themselves on deck, pleased to leave the narrow bounds of their staterooms."

"There are some who would rather stifle in their staterooms than be stared at by the common herd."

"There are others, born in state, who would rather stand beneath the open sky, side by side with a true man, than share the tinsel display of kings," I persisted.

"Rousseau is somewhat out of style."

"No less is royalty."

"The French murdered their king, and G.o.d sent them a tyrant."

"A tyrant not for France alone. All Europe trembles at the word of the Corsican."

"And your country, the glorious free Republic."

The bitter words forced past my lips: "My country writhes and bends beneath the insults of the fighting bullies, and clutches eagerly at the price of shame,--the carrying trades of the world."

She raised her eyes to mine, grave but no longer scornful. "At last I have found an American!"

"There are others beyond the Alleghanies. We of the West are not sold to the shipping trade."

"No; you do not take by commerce. You have ever been given to taking by force."

"We have conquered the Indian with our rifles, and the wilderness with our axes."

"Yet you turned to your East for it to buy you Louisiana, through a conspiracy with that arch-liar the Corsican!"

"No conspiracy, senorita! It is well known that Napoleon bought Louisiana from Spain for the sole purpose of extending his empire to the New World. It was the fear of losing New Orleans to England that induced him to sell the Territory to us--that alone."

"Yet he had given his pledge to my country not to sell!"

"Let your people look to it that he does not sell Spain itself."

"Ah, my poor country!" she murmured, and her head sank forward.

"I had gathered that your uncle was among those who seek to free Mexico from Spanish rule," I said.

"Those whose misrule rests so heavily upon my people in New Spain have little more regard for the welfare of my people in the mother country."

Again there was silence between us, this time until the close of the bishop's sermon. As the prelate left the stand, the Irishwoman turned about with an expectant look.

"Enough of this mockery!" said the senorita.

I stepped down at the word, and had the pleasure of receiving her hand the second time. She made no objection to my escorting her from the hall and to the outer door. In the portico she stopped for the Irishwoman to come up on her other hand.

"You have my thanks, senor," she said.

I was not prepared to receive my dismissal so soon.

"With your kind permission, senorita, I will see you to your door," I ventured, astonished at my own audacity.

Whatever her own feeling, she turned without so much as a lift of her black eyebrows, and signed the woman to drop behind again. We descended the marble steps together, and pa.s.sed down a side street. She walked as she spoke, flowingly, her step the perfect poetry of motion as her voice was the poetry of sound. Her mere presence at my side should have been enough to content me. But my thoughts returned to the dismal news of her intended departure.

"You go within the week?" I questioned.

"Without regret," she replied.

I pa.s.sed over the thrust. "You have been nowhere. It must have been dull."

"Less so than may be thought. I have spent much of my time in the company of Mrs. Merry."

"Lord have mercy upon us!" I mocked. "If you have been imbibing the opinions of the Lady of the British Legation--!"

"I have heard some sharp truths regarding the ridiculousness of your republican regime."

"And could tell of as many, from your own observation, regarding the Court of St. James."

It was a chance shot, but it hit the mark.

"I had not thought you so quick," she said, with a note of sincerity under the mockery.

"I am not quick, senorita," I replied. "It is no more than the reflection of your own wit."

"That does not ring true."

"It is true that you raise me above my dull self."

"Have I said that I have found you dull?"

"I have never succeeded in acquiring the modish smartness of the gallants and the wits."

"That, senor, is beyond the power of a man to acquire." I looked for mockery in her eyes, and saw only gravity. The scarlet lips were curved in scorn, but not of myself. "It is only those born as brainless magpies who can chatter. You were right when you said that I could tell of truths from my own observation. I left England with as little regret as I shall--"

"Do not say it, senorita!" I protested.

"You Americans! You have the persistence of the British, with no small share of French alertness!"