a pretty dower, for Don Jayme said--for pleasantry, no
doubt--'Ruis, you will do well to get an acknowledgment.'"

"Ruis! He called you Ruis! Your name is Judas." The girl's face was
always white, but now it was whiter than the moon. The red had left her
lips, and her voice, which had been melodious as the consonance of
citherns and guitars, grew abruptly harsh and strident. She was
trembling from head to foot.

"But will you not take them?" he asked, referring to the bags of money
which, awkwardly enough, he still held out to her.

"Get back, Spaniard, into the night from which you came. I gave you
love, you bring me gold. I gave my trust, you ask a receipt. You shall
have it." She had moved forward near to him again, and glared in his
face.

"But if you refuse the gold, what," he asked, almost piteously, "what
can I give?"

"Nothing save this dirk."

And before the intention could have been divined, she tore the dagger
from his belt and sheathed it in his heart.

"There is my receipt," she cried.

The bags fell heavily to the ground, and of one of them the canvas burst
open and scattered the contents on the ground. Ruis would have fallen
too, but with one steadying hand she held him on the saddle, and with
the other unwound her scarlet sash. In a moment's time she had tied him
fast; then she gave the affrighted horse a blow and stepped aside. And
as she did so the horse veered and rushed up the road, bearing the
lifeless Ruis, bound as Mazeppa was, with the dagger still in his heart,
to the father who waited his return.

For a little space she listened to the sound of retreating hoofs. She
was trembling still.

On the porch the old woman had tottered out. "What was it?" she asked.

"Death."

"_Ave Maria purissima!_" croned the hag.

And the girl, turning her back to the darkness in which the horse had
vanished, answered, as is the custom, "Who conceived without sin."

Fausta re-entered the house, but her mother loitered on the porch. The
next morning the gold had disappeared.

BY THE SAME AUTHOR.

THE PACE THAT KILLS.

A TRANSACTION IN HEARTS.

EDEN.

THE TRUTH ABOUT TRISTREM VARICK.

MR. INCOUL'S MISADVENTURE.

THE ANATOMY OF NEGATION.

THE PHILOSOPHY OF DISENCHANTMENT.

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Transient Guest, by Edgar Saltus

*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A TRANSIENT GUEST ***

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