"Oh, Teresa!"
"Yes, yes, I know it is wrong, but how can I help it? I've loved him ever since I first saw him--saved his life." Jane was astounded. The thrust pierced her to the quick.
"Saved his life?"
"Yes, though he does not know it. It was when we were prisoners of the Filipinos. My poor brother was dying. From the convent Aguinaldo and his men were watching and directing the fight on the plaza. They paid no attention to me--a girl. The noise of the fighting men was terrible, and I climbed up to a window where I could see. Sudrenly, below me, I saw two men fighting apart from the struggling mass. In an instant it flashed through my mind that the Filipino was overpowering the other--was going to kill him. Although I hated them equally, there was something in the young soldier's face--I could not see him murdered. I seized a pistol that was lying near me and fired; the Filipino fell. In terror of the deed and fear of discovery, I ran to my brother. In a moment the Americans broke into the convent. You know the rest."
Jane was suffering the keenest pangs of jealousy, and asked, excitedly: "You--you did that?"
"And finally, when I had learned to care for him and he was wounded, to have been denied the right of nursing him back to life--my place usurped by you. Surely, I have as much to be proud of as you and I love him a great deal more!"
"As much to be proud of---" Jane was saying, for the moment all the warmth gone from her voice, the flame from her cheeks; but her meaning could not have been understood by the other who proudly, defiantly tossed back her head. Beautiful indeed was this brown-skinned, black-eyed girl, as she stood there pleading her rights to an unrequited love--a heart already tenanted by another, and that other, the womam before her.
"Now, can you imagine," the girl went on, "how it has hurt me to see you caring for him, to see his eyes forever searching for you? No?" They were silent a moment. A wistful look was in her eyes now, and her voice unmistakably reconcilable when she resumed: "Ah, he was so good and true when I was alone with them--before you came! I pray God, now, that he may be well and that you may make him happy."
"Alas, I am afraid that can never be! You cannot understand, and I cannot explain."
"Your family objects because he is poor and a common soldier? Yes?" She laughed bitterly, a green light in her eyes. "If it were I, no one could keep me from belonging to him--I would---"