"Let's run away to-night! Let's have another rescue, and go back to our Oasis----" But she stopped me by putting her hand over my mouth, although she was breathing fast and the color had flown to her cheeks.
"Don't, don't," she gasped. "I've thought of that so many times!"
"To-night," I begged. "You know I'll always make you happy?"
"Happy?" Her eyes, half closed, held mine with a look that did not try to hide its longing. "There'd be no happiness on earth like that of being entirely yours at our Oasis!"
"No, Jack," she now sat straighter. "I was dreaming. Besides, he'd follow with every officer in Florida. Don't you understand, dear, that he has the _right_? I'm helpless to refuse! I can't--possibly! It's simply awful, but it's got to be."
Yet I believed that she had been on the point of yielding, and was about to urge still further when Monsieur's voice, speaking to Echochee, brought me to my feet.
"Well, my boy Jack," he exclaimed, entering with a cheeriness I found detestable, "we shall leave her now, eh? She has packing to do, and must get early to rest."
His protectorate seemed to brook no opposition, and an angry retort sprang to my lips which remained unspoken when I saw the pallor of Doloria's face.
"Yes," she said, without animation, "I must pack. See you to-morrow--on the march."
So, ignoring him, I passed out. But a better humor came to me as I thought of Tommy's scheme about the _Orchid_, and coming upon Echochee at the landing I asked--lightly for her benefit, yet quite seriously for myself:
"Is there any magic in your tribe that can bring a troubled princess sleep and pleasant dreams?"
I knew that she was searching my face with her black little eyes that glistened like a snake's, as she answered slowly:
"Injun maiden find plenty good dream when her head lay on breast of sleeping brave."
"I didn't mean just that," I stammered, feeling my cheeks grow hot. For, albeit, Doloria had slept part of a night with her head against my shoulder when we fared alone in the purity of our wilderness, now, since others of the world were touching elbows with us, Echochee's words knocked me rather into a self-conscious heap. But such is the bitter tithe we must toss into the maw of civilization which, despite its multitude of admitted blessings, breeds also the false! And I stepped into the punt wishing that this daughter of our oldest American family could be divinely appointed arbiter of our customs.