r indifference. Did he think that she could ever forget him?
Ah! Those days had been the sweetest in all her existence; the romance
of her life, the blue flower that all women, even the most ordinary,
carry within their memories like a breath of poesy.

"Do you imagine that I don't know what my lot is going to be like?...
You were the unexpected, the sweet disturbance that beautifies life, the
happiness of love which finds joy in all that surrounds it and never
gives thought to the morrow. You are a man that stands out from all the
rest; I know that. I'll many, I'll have many children,--many!--for our
race is inexhaustible, and at night my husband will talk to me for hour
after hour about what we earned during the day. You... you are
different. Perhaps I would have had to suffer, to be on my guard lest
I'd lose you, but with all that you are happiness, you are illusion."

"Yes, I am all that," said Aguirre "I am all that because I love you....
Do you realize what you are doing, Luna? It is as if they laid thousands
and thousands of silver pounds upon the counter before Zabulon, and he
turned his back upon them, scorning them and preferring the synagogue.
Do you believe such a thing possible?... Very well, then. Love is a
fortune. It is like beauty, riches, power; all who are born have a
chance of acquiring one of these boons, but very few actually attain to
them. All live and die believing that they have known love, thinking it
a common thing, because they confuse it with animal satisfaction; but
love is a privilege, love is a lottery of fate, like wealth, like
beauty, which only a small minority enjoy.... And when love comes more
than half way to meet you, Luna, Lunita,--when fate places happiness
right in your hands, you turn your back upon it and walk off!...
Consider it well! There is yet time! Today, as I walked along Royal
Street I saw the ship notices. Tomorrow there's a boat sailing for Port
Said. Courage! Let us flee!... We'll wait there for a boat to take us to
Australia."

Luna raised her head proudly. Farewell to her look of compassion!
Farewell to the melancholy mood in which she had listened to the
youth!... Her eyes shone with a steely glance; her voice was cruel and
concise.

"Goodnight!"

And she turned her back upon him, beginning to walk as if taking flight.
Aguirre hastened after her, soon reaching her side.

"And that's how you leave me!" he exclaimed. "Like this, never to meet
again... Can a