t, Carmen had become accomplished. She spoke English
fluently. And it was only a matter of practice to give her a similar
grasp of French, Italian, and German. As for other instruction,
such knowledge of the outside world as he had deemed wise to give her
in these six years had been seized upon with avidity and as
quickly assimilated. But he often speculated curiously--sometimes
dubiously--upon the great surprises in store for her should she ever
leave her native village. And yet, as often as such thought recurred
to him he would try to choke it back, to bar his mind against it, lest
the pull at his heartstrings snap them asunder.

Often as he watched her expanding so rapidly into womanhood and
exhibiting such graces of manner, such amiability of disposition,
such selfless regard for others, combined with a physical beauty
such as he thought he had never before gazed upon, a great yearning
would clutch his soul, and a lump would rise in his throat. And
when, as was so often the case, her arms flew impulsively about his
neck and she whispered words of tender endearment in his ear, a
fierce determination would seize him, and he would clutch her to
himself with such vehemence as to make her gasp for breath. That she
might marry he knew to be a possibility. But the idea pierced his
soul as with a sword, and he thought that to see her in the arms of
another, even the man of her choice, must excite him to murder. One
day, shortly after her fourteenth birthday, she came to him and,
perching herself as was her wont upon his knees, and twining her arms
about his neck, said, with traces of embarrassment, "Padre dear,
Juan--he asked me to-day to marry him."

Jose caught his breath. His ears rang. She--marry a peon of Simiti! To
be sure, Juan had often reminded him of the request he had made for
her hand long ago. But Jose had not considered the likelihood of the
lad's taking his question directly to her. And the girl--

"And what did you reply?" he asked thickly.

"Padre dear--I told him that--" She stopped abruptly.

"Well, _chiquita_; you told him--what?" His voice trembled.

She flushed, still hesitating. He held her back from him and looked
squarely into her wide eyes.

"You told him, _chiquita_--"

"That--well, Padre dear, I told him that--that I might never marry."

Jose sighed. "And do you think, little girl, that you will always hold
to that resolution?"

"Yes, Padre, unless--"

"Well, _chiquita_, unless--"