ng through all
that, how can you be so happy now? And with all your kin down there in
that awful war! Why--!"

"Don't you think I am a princess now?" Carmen asked, smiling up at
her.

"I think you are a marvel!" was the emphatic answer.

"And--you don't want to know what it was that kept me through it all,
and that is still guiding me?" The bright, animated face looked so
eagerly, so lovingly, into the world-scarred features of her
companion.

"Not if you are going to talk religion. Tell me, who is this priest
you are seeking to-day, and why have you come to see him?"

"Father Waite. He is the one who found me--when I got lost--and took
me to my friends."

The big car whirled around a corner and stopped before a dingy little
church edifice surmounted by a weather-beaten cross. On the steps of a
modest frame house adjoining stood a man. He turned as the car came
up.

"Father Waite!" Carmen threw wide the door of the car and sprang out.
"Father Waite!" clasping his hands. "Don't you know me? I'm Carmen!"

A light came into the startled man's eyes. He recognized her. Then he
stepped back, that he might better see her. More than a year had
passed since he had taken her, so oddly garbed, and clinging tightly
to his hand, into the Ketchim office. And in that time, he thought,
she had been transformed into a vision of heavenly beauty.

"Well!" cried the impatient girl. "Aren't you going to speak?" And
with that she threw her arms about him and kissed him loudly on both
cheeks.

The man and Miss Wall gave vent to exclamations of astonishment. He
colored violently; Miss Wall sat with mouth agape.

"Aren't you glad to see me?" pursued the girl, again grasping his
hands.

Then he found his tongue. "An angel from heaven could not be more
welcome," he said. But his voice was low, and the note of sadness was
prominent.

"Well, I am an angel from heaven," said the laughing, artless girl.
"And I'm an Inca princess. And I'm just plain Carmen Ariza. But,
whoever I am, I am, oh, so glad to see you again! I--" she looked
about carefully--"I read your sermon in the newspaper this morning.
Did you mean me?" she concluded abruptly.

He smiled wanly. "Yes, I meant you," he softly answered.

"Come with me now," said the eager girl. "I want to talk with you."

"Impossible," he replied, shaking his head.

"Then, will you come and see me?" She thought for a moment. "Why have
you never been to see me? Didn't you know I was s