"That has been my secret, and will be my sacrifice to you, Diego, my son.I have foreseen all this; I have expected it from the day that girl sent you her woman's message, that was half a challenge, from her school--I have known it from the day you walked together on the sea-shore.I was blind before that--for I am weak in my way, too, and I had dreamed of other things.God has willed it otherwise." He paused, and returning the pressure of Hurlstone's hand, went on."My secret and my sacrifice for you is this.For the last two hundred years the Church has had a secret and trusty messenger from the See at Guadalajara--in a ship that touches here for a few hours only every three years.Her arrival and departure is known only to myself and my brothers of the Council.By this wisdom and the provision of God, the integrity of the Holy Church and the conversion of the heathen have been maintained without interruption and interference.You know now, my son, why your comrades were placed under surveillance; why it was necessary that the people should believe in a political conspiracy among yourselves, rather than the facts as they existed, which might have bred a dangerous curiosity among them.I have given you our secret, Diego--that is but a part of my sacrifice.When that ship arrives, and she is expected daily, I will secretly place Miss Keene and her friend on board, with explanatory letters to the Archbishop, and she will be assisted to rejoin her brother.It will be against the wishes of the Council; but my will," continued the old man, with a gesture of imperiousness, "is the will of the Church, and the law that overrides all."He had stopped, with a strange fire in his eyes.It still continued to burn as he went on rapidly,--"You will understand the sacrifice I am making in telling you this, when you know that I could have done all that I propose without your leave or hindrance.Yes, Diego; I had but to stretch out my hand thus, and that foolish fire-brand of a heretic muchacha would have vanished from Todos Santos forever.I could have left you in your fool's paradise, and one morning you would have found her gone.I should have condoled with you, and consoled you, and you would have forgotten her as you did the other.I should not have hesitated; it is the right of the Church through all time to break through those carnal ties without heed of the suffering flesh, and I ought to have done so.This, and this alone, would have been worthy of Las Casas and Junipero Serra! But I am weak and old--Iam no longer fit for His work.Far better that the ship which takes her away should bring back my successor and one more worthy Todos Santos than I."He stopped, his eyes dimmed, he buried his face in his hands.
"You have done right, Father Esteban," said Hurlstone, gently putting his arm round the priest's shoulders, "and I swear to you your secret is as safe as if you had never revealed it to me.
Perhaps," he added, with a sigh, "I should have been happier if Ihad not known it--if she had passed out of my life as mysteriously as she had entered it; but you will try to accept my sacrifice as some return for yours.I shall see her no more.""But will you swear it?" said the priest eagerly."Will you swear that you will not even seek her to say farewell; for in that moment the wretched girl may shake your resolution?""I shall not see her," repeated the young man slowly.
"But if she asks an interview," persisted the priest, "on the pretense of having your advice?""She will not," returned Hurlstone, with a half bitter recollection of their last parting."You do not know her pride.""Perhaps," said the priest musingly."But I have YOUR word, Diego.
And now let us return to the Mission, for there is much to prepare, and you shall assist me."Meantime, Hurlstone was only half right in his estimate of Miss Keene's feelings, although the result was the same.The first shock to her delicacy in his abrupt speech had been succeeded by a renewal of her uneasiness concerning his past life or history.
While she would, in her unselfish attachment for him, have undoubtingly accepted any explanation he might have chosen to give her, his continued reserve and avoidance of her left full scope to her imaginings.Rejecting any hypothesis of his history except that of some unfortunate love episode, she began to think that perhaps he still loved this nameless woman.Had anything occurred to renew his affection? It was impossible, in their isolated condition, that he would hear from her.But perhaps the priest might have been a confidant of his past, and had recalled the old affection in rivalry of her? Or had she herself been unfortunate through any idle word to reopen the wound? Had there been any suggestion?--she checked herself suddenly at a thought that benumbed and chilled her!--perhaps that happy hour at the cross might have reminded him of some episode with another? That was the real significance of his rude speech.With this first taste of the poison of jealousy upon her virgin lips, she seized the cup and drank it eagerly.Ah, well--he should keep his blissful recollections of the past undisturbed by her.Perhaps he might even see--though SHE had no past--that her present life might be as disturbing to him! She recalled, with a foolish pleasure, his solitary faint sneer at the devotion of the Commander's Secretary.
Why shouldn't she, hereafter, encourage that devotion as well as that sneer from this complacently beloved Mr.Hurlstone? Why should he be so assured of her past? The fair and gentle reader who may be shocked at this revelation of Eleanor Keene's character will remember that she has not been recorded as an angel in these pages--but as a very human, honest, inexperienced girl, for the first time struggling with the most diplomatic, Machiavellian, and hypocritical of all the passions.
