I must leave here to-day, never to return, or I must take you with me.
Do not start, Maruja--but hear me out.

Dare you risk all?
Dare you fly with me now, to-night, to the old Padre at the ruined Mision, and let him bind us in those bonds that none dare break?
We can take Faquita with us--it is but a few miles--and we can return and throw ourselves at your mother's feet.

She can only drive us forth together.
Or we can fly from this cursed wealth, and all the misery it has entailed--forever." She raised her head, and, with her two hands on his shoulders, gazed at him with her father's searching eyes, as if to read his very soul.
"Are you mad, Harry!--think what you propose! Is this not tempting me?
Think again, dearest," she said, half convulsively, seizing his arm when her grasp had slipped from his shoulder.
There was a momentary silence as she stood with her eyes fixed almost wildly on his set face.

But a sudden shock against the bolted door and an inarticulate outcry startled them.

With an instinctive movement, Guest threw his arm round her.
"It's Pereo," she said, in a hurried whisper, but once more mistress of her strength and resolution.