d so avoid serious complications.
Now you understand why I am here and why I wished to see you."

"Valgame Dios! This is amazing. I become more bewildered momentarily."

"There is nothing extraordinary about it, that I can see."

"You think not? You consider such a woman as yourself ordinary? The men
of my country enshrine beauty and worship it. They place it apart as a
precious gift from God which nothing shall defile. They do not discuss
such things with their women. Now this sordid affair is something for
your husband--"

"Mr. Austin's business occupies his time; this is my own concern. I am
not the only practical woman in Texas."

Longorio appeared to be laboriously digesting this statement. "So!" he
said at last. "When you heard of this--you came, eh? You came alone
into Mexico, where we are fighting and killing each other? Well! That
is spirit. You are wonderful, superb!" He smiled, showing the whitest
and evenest teeth.

Such extravagant homage was embarrassing, yet no woman could be wholly
displeased by admiration so spontaneous and intense as that which
Longorio manifested in every look and word. It was plain to Alaire that
something about her had completely bowled him over; perhaps it was her
strange red hair and her white foreign face, or perhaps something
deeper, something behind all that. Sex phenomena are strange and varied
in their workings. Who can explain the instant attraction or repulsion
of certain types we meet? Why does the turn of a head, a smile, a
glance, move us to the depths? Why does the touch of one stranger's
hand thrill us, while another's leaves us quite impassive? Whence
springs that personal magnetism which has the power to set the very
atoms of our being into new vibrations, like a highly charged electric
current?

Alaire knew the susceptibility of Mexican men, and was immune to
ordinary flattery; yet there was something exciting about this martial
hero's complete captivation. To have charmed him to the point of
bewilderment was a unique triumph, and under his hungry eyes she felt
an adventurous thrill.

It is true that Luis Longorio was utterly alien, and in that sense
almost repellent to Alaire; moreover, she suspected him of being a
monster so depraved that no decent woman could bring herself to accept
his attentions. Nevertheless, in justice to the fellow, she had to
acknowledge that externally, at least, he was immensely superior to the
Mexicans she had met. Then, too, h