"So you see," she added with a wan smile, "I did not give serious
thought to your troubles, Elsie. Ventana could never have married you
while I was alive."
Elsie's cheeks reddened.
"I never told you he asked me to marry him," she said. "It would have
been just the same had he done so. As it was, I feared the man. Now
you know why I ran away from Chile. If I permitted another impression
to prevail, I acted for the best. But the unhappy man is dead; let us
endeavor to forget him."
"His memory haunts me with an enduring curse," cried Isobel, bitterly.
"Among my papers I had some letters of his, the marriage certificate,
and his written promise not to molest me. On that awful night when the
ship was disabled, I went to my cabin and secured them, or thought I
did. At any rate, I could not find them when we landed on White Horse
Island, and, from hints dropped by that wretched little adventurer, de
Poincilit, I feel sure they have fallen into his hands. Believe me,
Elsie, I was half mad when I helped him to steal the boat."
"Steal the boat! What boat?"
"Has not Captain Courtenay told you?"
"Not a word."
"Ah, he is a true gentleman. But you forget. You heard what he said
to de Poincilit before he went to the Guanaco cañon?"
"Yes; I did not understand. Oh, my poor Isobel, how you must have
suffered, while I have been so happy."
"If only I could recover my papers--"
"May I ask Arthur to help?"
"He knows the worst of me already. One more shameful disclosure cannot
add to my degradation."
"Isobel, how little you know him!" Thus spoke Elsie, after fourteen
days. Truly there is much enlightenment in a hug!
Monsieur le Comte Edouard de Poincilit, to his intense chagrin, found
that a ship's captain has far-reaching powers when he chooses to exert
them. Rather than enter a Montevidean jail, where people have died
suddenly of nasty fevers, he not only restored the missing documents
but submitted to a close scrutiny of his own belongings, which resulted
in the pleasing discovery that he was not a French count, but a denizen
of Martinique--most probably a defaulting valet or clerk. No one
troubled to inquire further about him. His passage money was refunded
and he was bundled ashore. Courtenay's view was that he had heard, by
some means, of Isobel's intended departure from Valparaiso, and deemed
it a good chance of winning her approval of his countship, seeing that
such titles are not subjected to serious investigation in South
America. Suarez took his Fuegian bride up country, where Mr. Baring
and Dr. Christobal established them on a small ranch.