CHAPTER VIII.

ESTELLA'S APPEAL.

"Oh, my mistress, what is it?" cried the ever-faithful Cara, as she rushed to Estella's side and raised up her young mistress.

"It--it is nothing, Cara, nothing!" murmured the beautiful young woman, as with a shudder she recalled what had occurred. "He--he--is gone!"

"Señor Howard? Yes, he has gone--he fairly ran away! Did he----"

"No, Cara, it is all right that he should go! But, oh!" she gave a deep sob, "to say that of me!--that I flirted with him, when my very heart is breaking!"

She threw herself into Cara's arms, and for a long while her frail body was torn by such a fierce gust of pain, anger, and anguish, that even the maid grew afraid.

"Don't go on so, my darling," she said. "Remember, we must away from here. It is not a safe place in which to stay! Not only are there Spaniards about, but city thieves and murderers----"

"Lead the way; I will follow, Cara," returned Estella, faintly. "But, child," she caught the maid's arm. "Of this scene, not one word to any one, I command you."

"My lips shall remain sealed," replied the maid, and led the way from the vault into the open air. The seminary grounds were now deserted, and they met no one as they returned to the hotel they had left so many hours before.

Once in the room prepared for her, Estella found herself completely exhausted, both mentally and physically. She had delivered the letters as agreed, but at what a fearful cost!

"He will never come near me again!" she moaned, when left entirely alone. "He will go back to the United States thinking me only a heartless flirt, unworthy of the love of any man! And I--I will have to return to the plantation and marry Lieutenant Mazenas! How I hate the very thought of that man! It will be a living death! I cannot bear it!"

For two hours she tumbled and tossed on her bed in the depth of her awful misery. The approaching marriage seemed to her to be worse than the approach of death would have been.

In the midst of it all there came an unexpected knock on her door just as the first streak of dawn was beginning to show in the east. It was a hotel maid who had aroused her.

"Your father, Doña Corona--General Corona!"

She sprang up in surprise. She had not expected him to come to her, after sending Cara. She was still dressed, having felt in no humor to disrobe.

"I will be ready in a minute, tell him," she said, and rushed to the washstand to make herself presentable. He came in while she was still at her toilet, trying hard to hide the traces of her many tears.

It was a warm embrace that the old general gave his daughter; with all his outward sternness and inflexibility he loved his only child dearly, and this he did not hesitate to show when the two were alone.

"My little girl!" he cried, in the softest of Spanish tones, as he gazed lovingly upon her. "You look pale, you have been crying! What is the trouble?"

"Oh, it is nothing, papa," she replied. "But what brought you? Cara said you could not leave the plantations."

"I came in to purchase some guns," was the reply. "Matters are growing warmer. These devilish rebels must be taught a lesson."

"Oh, but, papa, are they so much in the wrong?" she asked, earnestly. She had hoped to find his ideas changing.

"Wrong? Of course they are wrong! Had I my say I would string them all up, or put them to the machete! The kingdom of Spain must be upheld!"

"But, papa, they have suffered--they are taxed so heavily!"

"So am I taxed, but I don't complain. They have no right to resist, to turn traitors!" He stamped his foot and began to walk up and down the apartment. "Estella, I am glad I sent for you to return. I see your sojourn in the United States has done you no good, so far as loyalty to our mother country is concerned."

"I believe Cuba should be free!" she murmured, impulsively.

"Free! Do I hear aright! My child talking like that!" General Corona began to grow purple in the face. "Estella, who put those silly ideas into your head? Cuba must and will remain as she is! I will myself return to the army, to fight for Spain, if need be! I am glad I came to Santiago to see you safely home. As soon as I can purchase the arms I am after, we will start for the plantations, and I will talk this silliness out of you. You must not think of becoming a little Cuban rebel!"

She started back. A little Cuban rebel! Just what her friends had called her!

"You have been crying," he went on. "Is it possible that you have shed tears for the rebellious rascals, the fellows who ought all to be in Spanish dungeons? Fie on you, Estella! You ought to be more of your father's daughter! But, then, women always were strange!" And he stopped to kiss her on the forehead.

"When did you come to the city?" she asked, to change the subject.

"At midnight. I expected to arrive earlier, but the rebels stopped the train. They are growing very bold. And while hunting up you and Cara, I was stopped by two of the rebels on the streets here. The rascals would have robbed me of my watch and money had not an American gentleman come to my assistance."

"An American gentleman!" said Estella, eagerly. "Did you learn his name?"

"Yes, but I've forgotten it. I wanted to reward him, but a few more rebels came along, and the soldiers followed, and I lost sight of him. I believe he was a rebel sympathizer--the worse for him!"

"Almost all Americans sympathize with the insurgents," said Estella.

"So I have heard. They are foolish, like others I know of here. But let us not discuss the subject further. You have not yet asked me of Lieutenant Mazenas. You cannot imagine how anxiously he awaits your coming."

At these words Estella turned deadly pale. She had expected something like this, yet she was far from being prepared.

"I--I did not care to ask about him," she faltered. "I presume he is quite well."

"Ah, Estella, I see you are as willful as ever, when it comes to loving the noble young man who has resolved to devote his life to his country's cause. I cannot imagine why it is thus. The lieutenant is a model young man, and comes of one of the finest families on the island."

"Yet even that cannot make me love him," she returned, firmly. "I have nothing against him personally, saving that he has wormed his way into your good graces----"

"Silence, child! Speak not thus of so good a patriot! You should be thankful that he has asked for your hand!"

"Well, I am not!"

"That shows what studying abroad has done for you--put silly notions into your head. I am thankful that I recalled you to your home; the influence here will be so much better for you. If you had any admirers in the United States, I trust you left them all behind."

"I had none there," sighed Estella, as her mind rushed to the noble one she had made on the steamer.

"So much the more strange that you did not take to the lieutenant. But you will no doubt like him better when you are his wife."

"Oh, father!"

What a world of meaning there was in those simple words! She rushed toward him, her beautiful hair falling over her shapely shoulders, and threw herself on her knees at his feet.

"Don't ask me to marry Lieutenant Mazenas!" she cried, entreatingly. "I cannot do it! It will break my heart!"

"Nonsense, Estella; hearts are not so easily broken. You are young--you do not look at the world so soberly as older folks do. The lieutenant is a good man, and his wealth----"

"I do not want his money!"

"You disregard the power of money, child. In this case it will place you in the best of society in Cuba--in Spain. What more can a woman want than that?"

"She may want love, papa--love, worth more than all the riches of kings!"

"Bah, Estella! That is but the rant of the actress in the play! Love! I would not give a fig for love nowadays! The age of romance has gone by. Turn to the lieutenant, and you'll be as happy as a woman can be."

"No! no! no!" She sobbed, as she essayed to endearingly throw her arms about his neck. But he pushed her off.

"By the way you go on I would almost believe you had left a lover behind," he said, severely. "If it is so, listen to me. You must cast him aside forever. I have promised the lieutenant that you will marry him within the week, and you must go to him heart-free."

She gave a moan of actual pain, but he was deaf to all entreaty. Instead of listening, he drew a card from his pocket and consulted it.

"The train leaves at twelve o'clock," he said. "I will be ready an hour before that time, and you must be. Unless you have shopping that must actually be done, you had better remain in the hotel, for fear of becoming involved in these street skirmishes, which appear to be altogether too frequent. Is Cara here?"

She nodded her head. She couldn't command her voice sufficiently to speak.

"Then let her go out for you. And now mind what I said, Estella; drop the past, and look only to the future. The worthy lieutenant said he would be in waiting, with a guard, on the arrival of the train at Marambo. You must show him how much you appreciate the honor he is about to confer upon you. The chances are that before this war is over he will be a general, like myself; for when money is added to valor, it means quick promotion."

With these words he pressed a kiss upon her icy forehead, and quitted the room. She sank down on a couch and covered her face with her hands. She had tried to ward off her coming fate, and had failed!