back and forth with
clenched hands and teeth, his face ashen, his lips quivering, his whole
being convulsed with emotion and remorse. For some minutes he was quite
unable to speak, the longing to scream and seize her by the throat and
throttle her was so overpowering.

"I understand," he said at length, in the calmest tone he could command,
"you love Captain Forest; you think to marry him."

"That's no concern of yours!" she retorted, hotly.

"Listen, Chiquita," he said, fiercely. "The cold blood that flows in his
veins can never satisfy the warm passion of the South--a woman of your
nature. I am richer than he is; I can strew your path with gold. I will
make amends for the past; I was young, then. My one desire in life will
be to fulfill your slightest wish, to live for your happiness only. Any
sacrifice you name, I will make. I will make over my entire fortune to
you if you will consent to our marriage."

"It makes me sick to hear you talk of love and marriage," she answered.
"Your idea of love is solely that of possession. What sort of love
could one like you give me in comparison to his?"

"Ah! you do love him! But you will never marry him," he retorted
furiously. "If I do not possess you, no one else shall!"

"Ah! you will kill me, perhaps?" she said, divining his thought. "Well,
then, be it so! What greater felicity could there be for me than to die
in the knowledge that he loves me--perhaps in his arms?" She drew back a
pace and placing both hands on her breast, said: "Strike, Don Felipe,
when and where the moment pleases you best!"

"Ha! ha! ha!" he laughed. "How could you take me to be so simple, so
foolish? Oh, no, Senorita, not until the hour that you have exchanged
vows and, intoxicated by love's first kiss, he presses you to his heart,
then--then, Senorita, will I lay him dead at your feet in order that you
also may realize what it is to live without the one you love," he said
with a sneer, a faint smile wreathing his cruel lips as he watched the
effect his words had upon her. There was a malicious gleam of exultation
in his eyes as he saw her draw herself together suddenly and shudder as
though struck by a knife.

"What say you to that, Senorita?" and he laughed in her face.

"What, dead at my feet? Such a one as you come between me and my
happiness?" The rich red bronze of her face faded to a livid hue, almost
white in its intensity. A strange, terrible light came into her eyes
and, as she glide