mult of emotion. She realized that the
moment for which she had been waiting had arrived. She looked up at him
without replying, then rose from her seat, and the two quietly left the
_patio_, disappearing among the shrubbery and the shadows.

Neither spoke. Each guessed the other's thoughts, and they walked on in
silence until they came to an open circular space surrounded by trees
and flooded by moonlight, where, as if moved by a common impulse, they
halted. Without a word he turned and silently folded her in his arms.

"Jack--" she murmured.

"Chiquita _mia_," he said at length, gazing down into her upturned face
where the dusk and the moon-fire met and blended in a radiance of
unearthly beauty, "is it not wonderful that, all unwittingly and
unconscious of each other's existence, we have been brought together
from the ends of the earth?" She was about to reply when a voice, close
at hand, cut her short. It was Don Felipe's.

"A pretty sentiment, Captain Forest," he said, stepping out into the
light before them. "I wish I might congratulate you, but you will never
marry her."

"How dare you!" cried the Captain furiously, advancing toward him with
flushed face and clenched hands. Chiquita started violently at the sound
of Don Felipe's voice. The apprehension of an impending catastrophe that
had oppressed her during the day, but which she had forgotten during the
excitement of the dance, again took possession of her.

"I apologize most humbly for intruding on your privacy," answered Don
Felipe, meeting the Captain's gaze unflinchingly, "but as one who wishes
you well, I could not stand quietly by and see a man like you cunningly
tricked by this woman."

"What do you mean?" asked the Captain, his eyes blazing and his voice
almost beyond control.

"Chance or fortune, which ever you may choose to call it, has recently
placed certain information in my possession which will entirely preclude
any thought on your part of marrying her." What can he mean, Chiquita
asked herself. She had expected an attack on the Captain and was
prepared for it, but this--what was it?

"You perhaps already know," continued Don Felipe coolly, "that this
woman and I were once betrothed to one another, but had I at that time
known what I now know of her, such a thing as a betrothal would have
been out of the question."

"And this information?" interrogated the Captain.

"It is very simple, Captain Forest," replied Don Felipe, slowly and